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•  C 


CORNELL  STUDIES  IN  ENGLISH 


EDITED  BY 

JOSEPH  QUINCY  ADAMS 

LANE  COOPER 
CLARK  S.  NORTHUP 


.  //,  f.     ^t 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  HORACE  ON  THE 

CHIEF  ENGLISH  POETS  OF  THE 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  CORNELL 
UNIVERSITY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 

MARY    REBECCA   THAYER 


NEW  HAVEN 

YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

MDCCCCXVI 


2 1  J953 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY 
YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


dlje  Collegiate  $J"Bo 

GEORGE  BANTA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

MENASHA,  WISCONSIN 

1916 


TO 

PROFESSOR  LANE  COOPER 

IN   GRATITUDE   FOR  HIS   ENCOURAGEMENT, 
COUNSEL,  AND   AID 


PREFACE 

The  following  study,  in  substantially  its  present  form,  was  prepared 
as  a  doctoral  dissertation  while  I  was  holding  a  fellowship  in  English 
at  Cornell  University;  it  was  undertaken  in  the  belief  that  the  relation 
between  English  literature  and  other  literatures,  especially  those  of 
classic  Greece  and  Rome,  though  its  existence  is  readily  admitted  by 
almost  every  one,  has  not  been  sufficiently  investigated  and  ascertained 
in  detail.  Such  general  surveys  as  Tucker's  Foreign  Debt  of  English 
Literature  can  in  the  nature  of  things  but  glide  over  the  surface  of  the 
vast  field  before  them;  and  the  careful  elaboration  of  particular 
instances  such  as  Reinsch's  study  of  Horace  and  Ben  Jonson  (see 
below,  page  108)  is  rare.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  one  has  hitherto 
attempted  to  do  for  any  single  Greek  or  Latin  author,  in  relation  to  our 
literature,  what  Paget  Toynbee  has  done  for  Dante  (Dante  in  English 
Literature,  London,  1909);  yet  in  the  case  of  several  of  the  Roman 
writers,  at  any  rate,  far  more  material  might  be  collected  than  for 
Dante.  Indeed,  it  is  perhaps  the  very  wealth  of  material  that  holds 
many  students  aloof  from  the  necessary  investigations;  too  few  are 
blest  with  the  vision  characteristic  of  Browning's  grammarian.  But, 
even  so,  we  may  realize  that  every  rigorous  comparison  of  an  ancient 
with  a  modern  author,  or  with  a  group  of  modern  authors,  will  con- 
stitute a  necessary  addition,  however  small,  to  the  lofty  structure 
which  we  desire  to  see  ideally  complete. 

My  choice  of  Horace  as  the  centre  of  my  work  was  in  part  deter- 
mined by  my  own  predilection,  but  more  by  the  feeling  that,  when  all 
is  said,  he  has  been  the  most  popular  Latin  poet  with  English  writers. 
The  claims  of  Virgil  and  Ovid,  of  course,  are  very  strong;  yet  I  think 
that  Horace  can  more  than  hold  his  own  with  either  of  these.  I 
selected  the  nineteenth  century  on  the  ground  that  there  would  be  an 
especial  interest  in  learning,  through  one  set  of  particulars,  what  sort 


8  The  Influence  of  Horace 

of  influence  the  ancient  classics  had  on  an  age  which,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  is  marked  by  a  tendency  to  break  away  from  them.  But  I 
expect  before  long  to  follow  Horace  through  other  periods,  and  to 
observe  his  influence  in  other  English  authors.  My  hope  is  that, 
singly,  or  combined  with  the  work  of  others,  my  studies  may  at  some 
time  result  in  a  substantial  volume  which  may  fairly  be  called  'Horace 
in  English  Literature.' 

I  am  glad  to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  gratitude  to  all 
who  have  aided  me  in  the  prosecution  of  my  study.  A  list  of  the  books 
I  have  consulted  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  work  (pp.  107-109); 
but  I  should  like  to  speak  in  particular  of  Classical  Echoes  in  Tennyson, 
by  W.  P.  Mustard,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  and  of 'the  very  help- 
ful notes  in  the  Shorey-Laing  edition  of  the  Odes  and  Epodes  of 
Horace.  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  Mustard  also  for  two  Words- 
worthian  allusions;  to  Professor  Lane  Cooper,  of  Cornell  University, 
under  whose  direction  the  work  was  begun,  for  his  constant  interest 
and  his  many  useful  suggestions;  and  to  others  who  on  occasion  have 
been  so  good  as  to  furnish  me  with  valuable  references. 

MARY  REBECCA  THAYER 
VASSAR  COLLEGE,  January  9,  1916 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 11 

William  Wordsworth 53 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge 65 

Lord  Byron 69 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley 85 

John  Keats 93 

Alfred,Lord  Tennyson 94 

Robert  Browning 102 

List  of  Books  Consulted Ill 

Index  of  Passages  from  Horace 115 


INTRODUCTION 

In  order  properly  to  discuss  the  influence  of  one  writer  upon  an- 
other, it  is  necessary  to  determine  as  nearly  as  may  be  for  what  each  of 
them  stands;  for  the  measure  of  real  influence  is,  after  all,  the  amount 
of  sympathy  which  exists  between  the  two.  Therefore,  prior  to  taking 
up  the  relation  of  Horace  to  nineteenth-century  English  poetry,  we 
must  endeavor  to  obtain  a  true  idea  of  him  as  he  shows  himself  to  us. 

The  attempt  to  discover  a  man  in  his  poems  is  always  fascinating, 
but  also  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  dangerous.  The  reason  for  this  is 
twofold:  first,  most  poets  have  the  faculty  of  merging  their  own  iden- 
tity from  time  to  time  in  the  imaginary  men  and  women  of  whom 
they  write,  so  that  it  is  indeed  Oedipus,  or  Francesca,  or  Lady  Mac- 
beth, or  Paracelsus,  whom  we  hear  speaking;  secondly,  the  eager 
interpreter  is  all  too  apt  to  forget  the  'infinite  variety'  which  goes  to 
make  up  every  human  being,  and,  dwelling  on  certain  poems,  while 
disregarding  others,  to  construct  therefrom  a  caricature  which  the  poet 
himself  would  be  the  last  to  recognize  as  his  portrait. 

From  the  first  of  these  dangers  Horace  is  not  so  likely  to  suffer;  for 
it  is  true  that  some  poets  commit  more  of  themselves  to  their  verse 
than  do  others,  and  he  belongs  to  the  former  class.  So  careful 
a  student  as  the  late  Professor  Sellar  finds  him  one  of  the  most 
self-revealing  of  poets;  and  Professor  J.  Wight  Duff,  the  able 
historian  of  Latin  literature,  says  of  him:  'No  Roman  author  except 
Cicero  has  left  anything  like  so  complete  a  self -revelation  as  Horace.'1 

It  is  well  for  us  that  this  is  true,  since  there  is  no  record  of  him 
except  the  brief  life  by  Suetonius,  which  furnishes  a  mere  biographical 
outline,  but  not  the  vastly  more  important  details  of  the  poet's 
personality.  Concerning  Horace  there  has  come  down  to  us  none  of 
the  contemporary  appreciation  which  helps  us  to  realize  even  so  inscru- 
table a  figure  as  'gentle  Shakespeare.'  It  is  from  Horace  alone  that 
we  may  hope  to  know  Horace — the  friend  of  Virgil,  the  favorite  of 
Maecenas,  the  protege  of  Augustus,  the  poet  of  us  all. 

From  the  second  danger,  however,  Horace  suffers  much.  Critic  after 
critic  has  taken  the  lighter  odes,  the  vers  de  socittt  which  the  poet 

1  A  Literary  History  of  Rome,  p.  496. 


12  The  Influence  of  Horace 

could  write  so  charmingly,  and  with  them  for  background  has  painted 
a  picture  of  an  amiable  trifler,  feeling  deeply  on  no  subject  except  per- 
haps when  the  ugly  thought  of  inevitable  death  obtrudes  itself;  a 
finished  workman,  caring  far  more  for  the  polishing  and  setting  than 
for  the  gem  itself.  Thus  we  find  Keble  saying: 1 

'I  reluctantly  confess  myself  hitherto  unable  to  discover  any  pecu- 
liar and  dominating  spring  of  Horace's  poetry.  In  fact,  I  suspect  his 
light  touch  of  all  subjects  betrays  to  us  that  he  dwelt  with  no  serious 
regard  on  any  one  of  them.  He  professes  at  times  a  notable  enthusi- 
asm for  the  country  and  rural  life:  yet  one  always  feels  that  his  interest 
was  rather  after  the  manner  of  those  who  merely  seek  recreation  there 
than  of  the  country-folk  themselves;  that  Rome  was  all  the  time  in  his 
thoughts;  that  he  cherished  his  little  farm  and  his  homely  belongings, 
less  for  their  own  sake  than  for  their  restful  repose,  their  elegant  hospi- 
talities, and  whatsoever  other  like  attractions  they  offered.  In  brief: 
he  enrolled  himself  .  .  .  without  misgiving  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Epicureans;  setting  before  him  as  his  sole  rule  of  life  the  hope  of  grasp- 
ing the  gifts  of  the  passing  hour,  whatever  they  might  chance  to  be. 
.  .  .  We  see,  then,  in  him  a  genial  gentleman,  one  too  nearly  in 
sympathy  with  the  crowd,  who  indulge  their  own  bent,  to  be  deeply 
influenced  by  any  tender  regard  for  things  far  away.' 

This  criticism  contains  an  element  of  truth.  Horace  was  an  Epi- 
curean; he  was  a  genial  gentleman.  But,  for  the  rest,  we  surely  will 
not  acknowledge  that  carpe  diem  was  his  'sole  rule  of  life,'  when  we 
recall  (to  take  a  familiar  instance)  the  golden  mean  upon  which  he 
time  and  again  insists;  we  cannot  agree  that  he  took  no  active  interest 
in  country  life  when  we  read  such  passages  as  the  following: 

Vivere  naturae  si  convenienter  oportet, 

Ponendaeque  domo  quaerenda  est  area  primum, 

Novistine  locum  potiorem  rure  beato? 

Est  ubi  plus  tepeant  hiemes?     .     .     . 

Est  ubi  divellat  somnos  minus  invida  cura? 

Detenus  Libycis  olet  aut  nitet  herba  lapillis? 

Purior  in  vicis  aqua  tendit  rumpere  plumbum, 

Quam  quae  per  pronum  trepidat  cum  murmure  rivum? 

Nempe  inter  varias  nutritur  silva  columnas, 

Laudaturque  domus  longos  quae  prospicit  agros. 

Naturam  expelles  furca,  tamen  usque  recurret;2 

1  Lectures  on  Poetry,  tr.  E.  K.  Francis,  2.  467  ff. 

8  If  we  are  to  live  in  accordance  with  nature,  and  first  of  all  are  to  hunt  for  a  spot  to  build  a  house,  do 
you  know  a  place  preferable  to  the  prosperous  country?  Is  there  any  place  where  the  winters  are  milder? 
Is  there  any  place  where  carking  care  less  disturbs  our  sleep?  Does  grass  smell  less  sweet  or  look 


Introduction  13 

and  if  we  carefully  consider  the  entire  body  of  Horace's  work,  we  must 
refuse  to  admit  that  he  touched  all  subjects  lightly.  "Rather  we  may 
accept  the  judgment  of  Sellar:1 

'He  is  at  once  the  lyrical  poet,  with  heart  and  imagination  respon- 
sive to  the  deeper  meaning  and  lighter  amusements  of  life,  and  the 
satirist,  the  moralist,  and  the  literary  critic  of  the  age.' 

The  safe  method,  then,  is  to  discover,  if  we  can,  for  ourselves 

.  .  what  Horace  reveals  of  himself  in  his  works;  not, 
Characteristics  be  it  understood  such  facts  of  his  life  as  that  his 
ot  Horace.  ~  1,1 

father  was  a  freedman,  and  mat  he  once  narrowly 

escaped  being  struck  by  a  falling  tree,  but  the  characteristics  of  the 
man  as  his  poetry  discloses  them.  And  for  a  first  descriptive  epithet 
we  may  echo  one  of  Keble's — 'genial.' 

Geniality,  indeed,  is  the  key-note  of  Horace's  work.  We  see  it  in 
the  epistles,  which,  though  addressed  to  dead  and  gone  Romans,  are 
really,  we  feel,  for  us  all;  yet  are  not  impersonal  'open  letters,'  but 
rather  a  delightful  admission  of  the  interested  to  his  confidence.  We 
see  it  even  in  his  most  sharply  satirical  passages;  for  virtually  all 
students  of  Horace  the  satirist  have  noticed  that  he  almost  never  loses 
his  good  humor — that  he  laughs  at  follies  instead  of  railing  at  them. 
We  see  it  in  many  of  his  lyrics,  such  as  Vides  ut  alia  .  .  .  Soracte, 
Integer  vitae,  and  Septimi  Gadis  aditure  mecum.  It  is  everywhere  appar- 
ent, so  that  we  find  ourselves  feeling  that  here  is  a  man  whom  it  would 
have  been  a  pleasure  to  know  and  to  talk  with. 

Yet,  though  nearly  always  good-humored,  Horace  is  far  from  being 
always  happy.  There  is,  indeed,  a  sombre  strain  in  him  that  fre- 
quently shows  itself  when  we  least  expect. 

Diffugere  nives,  redeunt  iam  gramina  campis, 
he  sings, 

Arboribusque  comae; 


Gratia  cum  Nymphis  geminisque  sororibus  audet 
Ducere  nuda  chores. 


And  then  he  adds  abruptly: 


Immortalia  ne  speres,  monet  annus  et  almum 
Quae  rapit  hora  diem. 


less  beautiful  than  pavements?     Is  water  which  tries  to  burst  its  pipes  in  the  streets  purer  than  that 
which  hurries  murmuring  down  its  channel?      Why,   even  among  columns  of  variegated   marble 
trees  are  tended,  and  a  house  which  has  a  view  of  far-away  fields  is  praised.     You  may  drive  out  nature 
with  a  pitchfork,  but  she  will  ever  return.     (Epist.  1.  10.  12-24.) 
1  Horace  and  the  Elegiac  Poets,  p.  3. 


14  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Damna  tamen  celeres  reparant  caelestia  lunae: 

Nos  ubi  decidimus 
Quo  plus  Aeneas,  quo  dives  Tullus  et  Ancus, 

Pulvis  et  umbra  sumus.1 
Or  again: 

Solvitur  acris  hiems  grata  vice  veris  et  Favoni. 


Nunc  decet  aut  viridi  nitidum  caput  impedire  myrto 

Aut  flore  terrae  quern  ferunt  solutae; 
Nunc  et  in  umbrosis  Fauno  decet  immolare  lucis, 

Seu  poscat  agna  sive  malit  haedo. 
Pallida  mors  aequo  pulsat  pede  pauperum  tabernas 

Regumque  turris.    O  beate  Sesti, 
Vitae  summa  brevis  spem  nos  vetat  incohare  longam.2 

It  is  in  this  feeling  of  the  inevitableness  of  death  that  the  melan- 
choly of  Horace  usually  shows  itself. 

The  glories  of  our  blood  and  state 

Are  shadows,  not  substantial  things; 
There  is  no  armor  against  fate; 

Death  lays  his  icy  hand  on  kings — 

the  thought  runs  throughout  his  poetry;  and  from  this  naturally 
enough  follows  the  desire  to  get  out  of  life  all  it  has  to  offer. 

Carpe  diem,  quam  minimum  credula  postero,8 

he  again  and  again  advises,  though  in  varying  words.  Yet  that  this 
desire  for  instant  happiness  is  with  him  no  mere  unregulated  impulse 
is  evident  to  any  reader;  for  perhaps  the  chief  element  of  the  Hora- 
tian  philosophy  is  moderation.  The  golden  mean  is  the  standard 
which  the  poet  sets  before  himself  and  those  who  care  to  listen  to  him, 
and  he  despises  alike  the  avarice  of  the  miser  and  the  extravagance 
of  the  spendthrift.  The  happiness  he  wishes  for  his  brief  life  is,  then, 
carefully  planned,  and  dependent  upon  the  scrupulous  balancing  of 
desire  with  desire.  He  carries  this  doctrine  to  its  logical  conclusion, 
and  tells  us:  Virtus  est  medium  mtiorum.  The  fact  that  this  advice  to 

1  The  snow  has  fled  away,  grass  now  returns  to  the  fields,  and  leaves  to  the  trees.     The  Grace, 
with  the  Nymphs  and  her  own  twin  sisters,  ventures  unrobed  to  lead  the  choric  dance.    'Do  not 
hope  for  immortality,'  is  the  warning  of  the  year  and  the  hour  which  snatches  from  us  the  cheerful 
day.      Swift-changing  moons  repair  their  wanings;  but  when  we  have  once  departed  to  where  pious 
Aeneas  and  rich  Tullus  and  Ancus  have  gone  before,  we  are  but  dust  and  shadow.     (Carm.  4.  7.  1-16.) 

2  Sharp  winter  is  driven  away  by  the  grateful  coming  of  spring  and  the  soft  breeze.     Now  is  the 
time  to  wreathe  shining  heads  with  myrtle  or  flowers  borne  by  the  freed  earth;  now  is  the  time  in  shady 
groves  to  make  offering  to  Faunus  of  a  lamb  if  he  ask  it,  or  if  he  like  better,  of  a  kid.    Pale  death  strikes 
with  impartial  foot  the  huts  of  poor  men  and  the  palaces  of  kings.     The  brief  span  of  life  forbids  us, 
happy  Sestius,  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  long  hope.     (Carm.  1.  4.  1-15.) 

3  Lay  hold  upon  to-day,  trusting  nothing  to  to-morrow.     (Carm.  1.  11.  8.) 


Introduction  15 

be  moderate  is  so  often  reiterated  in  his  work  goes  to  show  that  the 
poet  was  sincere  in  giving  it.  It  is  no  passing  fancy,  but  an  integral 
part  of  his  conduct  of  life. 

Thus  we  should  expect  to  find  Horace  a  man  of  simple  tastes;  and 
so  he  professes  to  be. 

Persicos  odi    .     .    .    apparatus,1 

he  cries;  and  though  the  particular  ode  is  light  in  tone,  the  theme 
is  sounded  again  and  again  in  more  serious  moments. 

Vile  potabis  modicis  Sabinum 
Cantharis, 

he  warns  no  less  a  person  than  Maecenas; 

mea  nee  Falernae 
Temperant  vites  neque  Fonniani 
Pocula  colles.2 

Me  pascunt  olivae, 
he  says  elsewhere, 

Me  cichorea  levesque  malvae.8 

Many  similar  expressions  may  be  found: 

Non  ebur  neque  aureum 

Mea  renidet  in  domo  lacunar. 


Nihil  supra 

Decs  lacesso  nee  potentem  amicum 
Largiora  flagito, 

Satis  beatus  unicis  Sabinis.4 

Purae  rivus  aquae  silvaque  iugerum 
Paucorum  et  segetis  certa  fides  meae 
Fulgentem  imperio  fertilis  Africae 
Fallit  sorte  beatior.5 

And  so  on.    A  part  of  this  may  be,  as  many  scholars  would  have  us 
believe,  a  pose;  all  of  it  can  hardly  be. 

It  naturally  follows  that  Horace  is  content  with  his  own  lot. 

Si  natura  iuberet, 
says  he, 

1 1  hate  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  the  Persians.      (Caw.  1.  38.  1.) 

2  You  will  drink  cheap  Sabine  wine  from  modest  measures.    The  Falernian  vines  and  the  slopes  of 
Formiae  do  not  flavor  my  cups.     (Carm.  1.  20.  1-12.) 

3  Olives  are  my  food,  and  chicory  and  wholesome  mallows.     (Carm.  1.  31.  15-16.) 

4  Not  ivory  nor  golden  ceiling  shines  resplendent  in  my  house.     I  ask  nothing  more  of  the  gods,  nor 
do  I  importune  further  my  powerful  friend,  happy  enough  with  just  my  Sabine  farm.    (Carm.  2.  18. 
1-14.) 

6  A  stream  of  pure  water  and  a  wood  of  a  few  acres  and  a  sure  reliance  on  my  crops  is  a  truer  happi- 
ness than  the  brilliant  lot  of  the  lord  of  fertile  Africa,  unconscious  of  it  though  he  be.  (Carm.  3.  16. 
29-32.) 


16  The  Influence  of  Horace 

A  certis  annis  aevum  remeare  peractum 
Atque  alios  legere,  ad  fastum  quoscumque  parentis 
Optaret  sibi  quisque,  meis  contentus  honestos 
Fascibus  et  sellis  nollem  mihi  sumere.1 

Hoc  erat  in  votis:  modus  agri  non  ita  magnus, 
Hortus  ubi  et  tecto  vicinus  iugis  aquae  fons 
Et  paulum  silvae  super  his  foret.    Auctius  atque 
Di  melius  fecere.    Bene  est.    Nil  amplius  oro, 
Maia  nate,  nisi  ut  propria  haec  mihi  munera  faxis.* 

Me 

quid  credis,  amice,  precari? 

Sit  mihi  quod  nunc  est,  etiam  minus.8 

Examples  could  be  multiplied. 

From  all  this  we  should  surmise  that  Horace  was  responsive  to  the 
charm  of  external  nature;  for  the  person  whose  tastes  are  simple  rarely 
fails  to  admire  the  beauties  which  he  sees  in  the  undisturbed  world 
about  him.  And  we  cannot  deny  this  habit  of  mind  to  the  Roman 
poet.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  feel  that  he  was  insincere  in  his  many 
protestations  of  his  preference  for  the  country  over  the  town.  The 
Sabine  farm,  mentioned  so  often  as  his  chief  treasure,  is  described  in 
Epist.  1.  16  as  none  but  a  true  lover  of  nature  could  describe  it.  We 
see  the  mountain-range  broken  only  by  the  dark  valley;  the  oaks  and 
ilex- trees  with  their  grateful  shade;  the  stream  (rivo  dare  nomen  ido- 
neum),  as  cool  and  pure  as  Hebrus.  The  entire  picture  is  given  us 
in  a  dozen  lines,  yet  it  is  perfectly  distinct.  This,  in  fact,  is  the  princi- 
pal merit  of  the  descriptions  of  external  nature  in  Horace — the  creation 
of  a  vivid  impression  by  the  use  of  exactly  the  right  word  or  phrase. 
What  lover  of  the  Odes  does  not  know  amoenum  Lucretilem  and  Albu- 
neam  resonantem  and  praecipitem  Anienem?  We  see  with  Thaliarchus 

ut  alta  stet  nive  candidum 
Soracte;4 

and  the  country  round  about  Tibur  is  familiar  ground  to  us.     What 
though  archaeologists  cannot  identify  all  these  places?    They  are  not 

1  If  nature  commanded  us  to  go  back  from  a  certain  time  over  our  lives  again,  and  to  choose 
whatever  other  parents  each  of  us  would  wish  for  himself  according  to  his  pride,  I,  content  with  my  own, 
would  not  want  to  select  new  ones  honored  with  state  offices.     (Serm.  1.  6.  93-97.) 

2  This  was  my  prayer:  a  piece  of  ground  not  too  large,  where  there  was  a  garden  and  a  spring  of 
ever-flowing  water  near  the  house,  and,  besides,  a  little  woodland.  The  gods  have  done  better  and  more 
abundantly  than  this.    It  is  well.     I  ask  nothing  more,  O  son  of  Maia,  except  that  thou  make  these 
gifts  permanently  mine.     (Serm.  2.  6.  1-5.) 

8  What  do  you  think,  my  friend,  that  I  pray?  That  I  may  have  what  now  is  mine,  or  even  less. 
(Epist.  1.  18.  104-107.) 

4  How  Soracte  stands  white  with  deep  snow.     (Carm.  1.  9.  1-2.) 


Introduction  17 

the  less  real  to  the  inward  eye  of  the  imagination. 

Especially  does  Horace  seem  to  have  delighted  in  groves  and 
streams.    Over   and   over   again   he  describes  himself,  or   another, 
stretched  at  ease  beside  rippling  water,  under  a  shade-giving  tree. 
He  nearly  always  names  his  trees,  and  his  favorites  are  many:  the 
arbutus,  the  ilex,   the  plane,  and  the  more  familiar  oak,  pine,  and 
poplar.     And  wherever  Horace  is  known,  there  also  is  known  the 
fons  Bandusiae,  splendidior  vitro.    The  poet's  promise, 
Fies  nobilium  tu  quoque  fontium, 
Me  dicente,1 
has  come  true. 

So  marked  is  this  predilection  for  waters  and  trees  that  we  are 
tempted  to  apply  to  him  his  own  words: 

Quae  Tibur  aquae  fertile  praefluunt, 
Et  spissae  nemorum  comae 

Fingent  Aeolio  carmine  nobilem.2 

Yet  let  no  one  make  the  mistake  of  deeming  Horace  a  recluse ;  for 
his  paramount  interest  is  always  human  nature.  He  loves  the  countryy 
but  also,  notwithstanding  temporary  periods  of  distaste,  he  loves  busy 
Rome  with  its  crowded  streets — yes,  even  with  its  'smoke  and  riches 
and  noise.'  His  keen  eye  observes  all  the  people  he  meets,  and  his 
ready  mind  reproduces  them  for  us,  so  that  we  see  again  the  singer 
Tigellius,  and  the  dinner-giver  Nasidienus,  and  the  bore  who  met  him 
on  the  Via  Sacra,  and  a  host  of  others,  both  named  and  nameless. 

Horace  was  interested  not  only  in  the  inhabitants  of  Rome,  but  in 
the  city  itself,  then  at  the  height  of  its  glory.  Though  born  in  Venu- 
sia,  he  was  a  true  Roman,  with  all  a  Roman's  pride  in  the  mistress  of 
the  world.  His  patriotism  manifests  itself  in  two  ways.  The  first  is 
the  obvious  one  of  recounting  the  triumphs,  past  and  present,  of  her 
whom  he  proudly  calls  domina  Roma.  We  feel  that  he  delights  in 
merely  rehearsing  the  names  of  the  city's  great  men — 

Romulum    ...    an  quietem 
Pompili  regnum    ...    an  superbos 
Tarquini  fascis    ...     an  Catonis 
Nobile  letum;3 

1  Thou  also  shalt  become  one  of  the  renowned  founts  through  my  singing.     (Carm.  3.  13. 13-14.) 

2  The  waters  flowing  through  fertile  Tibur  and  the  tangled  foliage  of  the  groves  shall  make  him 
renowned  for  Aeolian  song.     (Carm.  4.  3.  10-12.) 

3  Romulus,  or  the  peaceful  reign  of  Pompilius,  or  the  proud  emblems  of  Tarquin,  or  Cato's  noble 
death.    (Carm.  1.  12.  33-36.) 


18  The  Influence  of  Horace 

and  in  lofty  verse  he  sings  the  illustrious  achievements  of  the  heroes 
of  old: 

Quid  debeas,  O  Roma,  Neronibus, 
Testis  Metaurum  flumen  et  Hasdrubal 
Devictus  et  pulcher  fugatis 
Ille  dies  Latio  tenebris, 

Qui  primus  alma  risit  adorea, 
Dims  per  urbis  Afer  ut  Italas 

Ceu  flamma  per  taedas  vel  Eurus 
Per  Siculas  equitavit  undas. 


Gens  quae  cremato  fortis  ab  Ilio 
lactata  Tuscis  aequoribus  sacra 
Natosque  maturosque  patres 
Pertulit  Ausonias  ad  urbis, 

Duris  ut  ilex  tonsa  bipennibus 
Nigrae  feraci  frondis  in  Algido, 
Per  damna,  per  caedis,  ab  ipso 
Ducit  opes  animumque  ferro.1 

Nor  do  the  present  glories  of  Rome  less  excite  his  pride.  He  writes 
concerning  the  'golden  age'  of  Augustus: 

lam  mari  terraque  manus  potentis 
Medus  Albanasque  timet  securis, 
lam  Scythae  responsa  petunt  superbi 
Nuper,  et  Indi. 

lam  Fides  et  Pax  et  Honor  Pudorque 
Priscus  et  neglecta  redire  Virtus 
Audet,  adparetque  beata  pleno 
Copia  cornu.2 

His  second  method  of  showing  patriotism  is  very  different;  for  here 
he  appears  as  the  censor,  who  sees  and  deplores  the  evils  that 
threaten  his  beloved  city.  The  old  Roman  virtues  are  no  more,  he 
says: 

Di  multa  neglecti  dederunt 
Hesperiae  mala  luctuosae. 

1  What  thou  owest,  O  Rome,  to  the  house  of  Nero  the  river  Metaurus  bears  witness,  and  the 
vanquished  Hasdrubal,  and  the  day  made  beautiful  by  the  driving  of  darkness  from  Latiurn,  the  first 
day  that  smiled  with  sweet  victory  since  the  dread  African  rode  through  the  cities  of  Italy  as  fire  goes 
through  pitch-pine  or  the  east  wind  through  the  Sicilian  waves.  The  race  which  bravely  bore  from 
the  ashes  of  Ilium  to  the  Ausonian  cities  its  shrines,  storm-tossed  on  Tuscan  waters,  and  its  child- 
ren and  old  fathers,  like  an  ilex-tree  shorn  of  its  branches  by  cruel  axes  in  Algidus  the  bearer  of 
dark  leaves,  draws  strength  and  courage,  through  losses  and  wounds,  from  the  sword  itself.  (Carm. 
4.  4.  37-60.) 

J  Now  on  sea  and  land  the  Mede  fears  our  powerful  bands  and  our  Alban  axes;  now  the  Scythians, 
but  lately  so  arrogant,  and  the  Indians,  beg  to  know  our  wishes.  Now  Faith  and  Peace  and  Honor  and 
old-time  Modesty  and  neglected  Virtue  dare  to  return,  and  happy  Plenty  appears  with  full  horn. 
(Carm.  Saec.  53-60.) 


Introduction  19 

lam  bis  Monaeses  et  Pacori  manus 
Non  auspicates  contudit  impetus 
Nostros  et  adiecisse  praedam 
Torquibus  exiguis  renidet. 

Paene  occupatam  seditionibus 
Delevit  Urbem  Dacus  et  Aethiops. 


Fecunda  culpae  saecula  nuptias 
Primum  inquinavere  et  genus  et  domos: 
Hoc  fonte  derivata  clades 

In  patriam  populumque  fluxit. 

Non  his  iuventus  orta  parentibus 
Infecit  aequor  sanguine  Punico 
Pyrrhumque  et  ingentem  cecidit 
Antiochum  Hannibalemque  dirum.1 

Not  once,  but  many  times,  does  he  sound  this  note.  He  foresaw  only 
too  well  whither  the  growing  luxury  and  laxity  of  the  empire  were  tend- 
ing, and  did  his  best  to  warn  his  fellow  countrymen.  His  patriotism, 
then,  was  not  superficial,  but  a  real  part  of  him,  serious  and  con- 
cerned for  the  future. 

The  friends  of  Horace  were  many,  and  we  may  judge  from  his 
poems  that  friendship  was  no  meaningless  word  to  him. 

Amicum 
Qui  non  defendit  alio  culpante,     .    .    . 


.    .    .    hie  niger  est,  hunc  tu,  Romane,  caveto,2 
he  tells  us;  and  again: 

At  pater  ut  gnati,  sic  nos  debemus  amici 
Siquod  sit  vitium  non  fastidire.3 

His  own  greatest  friend  is  the  powerful  minister,  Maecenas;  and  though 
possibly  much  of  Horace's  adulation  of  him  is  due  to  the  memory  of 

1  The  neglected  gods  have  showered  many  evils  upon  sorrowful  Italy.     Already  Monaeses  and  the 
band  of  Pacorus  have  twice  crushed  our  unlucky  attacks,  and  rejoice  in  having  added  to  their  slender 
necklaces  our  booty.    The  Dacian  and  the  Ethiop  have  nearly  destroyed  our  city  racked  by  rebellion. 
The  age,  steeped  in  guilt,  has  first  polluted  wedlock  and  the  race  and  the  home.     Calamity,  sprung  from 
this  source,  has  overflowed  the  country  and  the  people.     It  was  not  a  young  manhood  born  of  parents 
like  these  that  dyed  the  sea  with  the  blood  of  Carthage  and  killed  Pyrrhus  and  great  Antiochus  and 
dread  Hannibal.     (Carm.  3.  6.  7-36.) 

2  He  who  does  not  defend  his  friend  against  another's  blame  is^evil;  beware  of  him,  Roman. 
(Serm.  1.  4.  81-85.) 

3  Just  as  in  the  case  of  a  father  and  his  son,  we  ought  not  to  despise  a  friend  because  he  has  some 
fault.     (Serm.  1.  3.  43-44.) 


20  The  Influence  of  Horace 

benefits  conferred,  and  also  to  a  natural  enough  pleasure  in  showing 
himself  to  be  upon  terms  of  intimacy  with  so  influential  a  man,  we 
need  not  deny  all  sincerity  to  his  protestations  of  affection  for  his 

patron.    The  beautiful  lines, 

Non  ego  perfidum 

Dixi  sacramentum:  ibimus,  ibimus, 

Utcumque  praecedes,  supremum 

Carpere  iter  comites  parati,1 

ring  true.  And  there  are  humbler  friends — humbler,  that  is,  at  the 
time,  though  nowadays  one  of  them  at  least  is  ranked  above  Augustus 
himself.  This  is  Virgil,  in  whose  honor  Horace  wrote  his  fine 
proempticon,  two  lines  of  which  serve  to  express  the  esteem  in  which 
the  younger  poet  held  the  elder: 

Reddas  incolumem  precor 

Et  serves  animae  dimidium  meae.2 

Then  there  are  Pompeius,  whom  our  poet  addresses  as  meorum  prime 
sodalium,  and  Septimius,  Gadis  aditure  mecum,  and  a  score  or  more  of 
others,  many  of  them  only  names  to  us,  but  to  Horace  dear  and  inti- 
mate friends. 

No  portrait  of  Horace  would  be  complete  without  some  mention  of 
his  delightful  sense  of  humor.  It  shows  itself  again  and  again — now 
in  the  description  of  his  brief  military  experience,  now  in  his  ac- 
count of  his  meeting  with  the  bore,  now  in  the  inimitable  bit  of  dia- 
logue between  Lydia  and  her  lover.  The  humor  is  generally  delicate; 
yet  we  cannot  use  a  popular  figure  and  compare  it  to  a  rapier-thrust, 
for  it  is  almost  always  good-natured.  Rarely  does  Horace  approach 
sarc^smjjwhenhe _  joes^jt  is  as  likely^  to  be^irgcjed  a^^S^st  himself  as 
another,  for  fie  ppfay^gea  thf>  Happy  faculty  ofjaugbinfi  %£  himself . 

Here,  then,  is  the  Roman  poet  as  he  shows  himself  to  us — a  genial 
man  and  of  a  kindly  disposition,  moderate  in  his  life,  simple  in  his 
tastes,  with  an  artist's  eye  and  feeling  for  the  beauties  of  external  na- 
ture, and  an  artist's  interest  in  humanity;  a  lover  of  his  country  and  of 
his  friends;  at  tunes  giving  himself  over  to  mirth  and  enjoyment,  at 
other  times  yielding  to  melancholy;  serious  withal,  and  sincerely  con- 
cerned about  what  he  deemed  the  great  things  of  life;  indeed,  a  figure  to 
command  affection  and  admiration. 

1 1  have  sworn  no  false  oath:  we  shall  go,  whenever  you  lead  the  way,  we  shall  go  ready  to  take  our 
last  journey  as  comrades.  (Carm.  2.  17.  9-12.) 

2  Return  him  safe,  I  pray,  and  preserve  the  half  of  my  soul.    (Carm.  1.  3.  7-8.) 


Introduction  21 

When  we  turn  to  Horace  the  artist,  we  find  that  all  critics,  what- 
£,  .    .  ever  may  be  their  feeling  about  the  matter  of 

f  H          '   P  kis  Poetry,  agree  that  he  is  a  master-craftsman. 

It  is  evident  to  the  merest  novice  that  his  ad- 
vice about  the  use  of  the  file  was  drawn  from  his  own  practice.  As 
a  result,  whatever  he  has  to  say  is  said  in  so  felicitous  a  manner  as  to 
make  us  feel  it  could  be  altered  only  for  the  worse.  Especially  is  this 
true  of  the  Odes,  where  almost  every  sentence  is  an  exquisitely  cut 
gem.  He  has  an  astonishing  power  of  compression  —  the  faculty  of 
making  one  or  two  words  imply  a  dozen  ideas.  This  is  what  makes  it 
absolutely  impossible  to  translate  Horace  adequately;  yet,  by  a  curious 
sort  of  irony,  it  is  perhaps  this  very  perfection  that  attracts  so  many 
would-be  translators — men  so  diverse  as  Milton  and  Eugene  Field, 
Cowper  and  Gladstone.  The  poet  himself  evidently  realized  his  own 
mastery  of  technique.  He  speaks  of  his  work  as  operosa. 

Parios  ego  primus  iambos, 
he  boasts; 

Ostendi  Latio,  numeros  animosque  secutus 
Archilochi;1 

and  even  in  the  lofty  Exegi  monumentum  he  rests  his  chief  claim  to 
renown  on  the  fact  that  he  was  the  first  to  adapt  Aeolian  verse  to 
Italian  measures. 

But,  as  Horace  realizes,  and  as  he  more  than  once  tells  us,  poetry 
consists  not  alone  in  technical  skill. 

Non  satis  est, 

e  says,  puris  versum  perscribere  verbis, 

Quern  si  dissolvas,  quivis  stomachetur  eodem 
Quo  personatus  pacto  pater.2 

Ingenium  cui  sit,  cui  mens  divinior  atque  os 

Magna  sonaturum,  des  nominis  [poetae]  huius  honorem.8 

In  his  Satires  and  Epistles,  accordingly,  he  disclaims  the  honor: 

Neque,  siqui  scribat  uti  nos 
Sermoni  propiora,  putes  hunc  esse  poetam.4 

1 1  was  the  first  to  import  Parian  iambics  into  Italy,  imitating  the  numbers  and  the  spirit  of 
Archilochus.     (Epist.  1.  19.  23-25.) 

It  is  not  enough  to  write  a  verse  in  correct  language,  when  if  you  take  it  to  pieces  you  find  that 
anybody  might  storm  like  the  father  in  the  play.     (Serm.  1.  4.  54-56.) 

8  To  him  who  has  genius,  to  him  who  has  a  more  godlike  mind  and  a  tongue  made  to  speak  lofty 
things,  give  the  honor  of  this  name  [poet].     (Serm.  1.  4.  43-44.) 

4  If  anybody  writes,  as  I  do,  things  more  like  ordinary  talk,  don't  think  he  is  a  ooet.     (Serm 
1.  4.  41-42.) 


22  The  Influence  of  Horace 

We  prefer  to  take  his  valuation  of  himself  in  the  Odes: 

Non  omnis  moriar.     .     .    .    .    ... 

";;• Mihi  Delphica 

Lauro  cinge  volens,  Melpomene,  comam.1 

The  poetry  of  Horace  is  far  from  being  the  superficial,  trivial  verse  that 
some  critics  would  have  us  believe.  It  is  true  that  he  wrote  many  odes 
upon  conventional  themes,  treating  these  themes  in  such  fashion  as  to 
make  them  memorable;  it  is  true  that  he  wrote  delicately-finished 
bits  of  verse  on  trifles — Quis  multa  gracilis,  Persicos  odi,  Vides  ut  alta, 
and  many  others;  it  is  also  true  that  he  wrote  noble  poems,  such 
as  Caelo  tonantem,  Ne  forte  credas,  and  the  triumphant  Exegi  monu- 
mentum,  the  first  few  lines  of  which  are  among  the  finest  utterances 
on  the  immortality  conferred  on  a  poet  by  his  work. 

As  must  be  the  case  with  every  real  artist,-  Horace  rated  his  calling 
high.     In  his  opinion,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  17),  the  poet  must  possess 
ingenium,  mens  divinior,  os  magna  sonaturum.    When  we  find  him 
speaking  in  a  slighting  way  of  poetry,  it  always  proves  to  be  the  work 
of  the  uninspired,  untrained  poetaster  that  he  has  in  mind;  for  he 
believed  that  the  poet  must  be  made  as  well  as  born.    The  Ars  Poetica 
is  a  witness  to  the  value  he  set  on  his  vocation: 
Quod  si  me  lyricis  vatibus  inseris, 
he  tells  us  in  a  well-known  ode, 

Sublimi  feriam  sidera  vertice.2 

Throughout  his  works  we  find  evidence  of  his  high  esteem  for  his  instru- 
ment— perhaps  none  more  satisfying  than  that  in  Carm.  4.  8 : 

Non  incisa  notis  marmora  publicis, 
Per  quae  spiritus  et  vita  redit  bonis 

Post  mortem  ducibus, 

clarius  indicant 

Laudes  quam  Calabrae  Pierides;  neque 
Si  chartae  sileant  quod  bene  feceris 
Mercedem  tuleris.3 

And  for  his  own  writings  his  prophecy  is  true:  Maecenas  the  statesman 
is  a  shadow;  Maecenas  the  friend  and  patron  of  Horace  is  known  to 
every  lover  of  the  poet. 

1 1  shall  not  wholly  die.    Gladly,  Melpomene,  wreathe  my  locks  with  the  Delphic  laurel.   (Carm. 

3.  30.  6-16.) 

2  But  if  you  rank  me  with  the  lyric  poets,  with  my  proud  head  I  shall  strike  the  stars.      (Carm. 
1.  1.  35-36.) 

3  Not  marbles  graven  with  deeds  of  public  renown,  by  which  breath  and  life  come  back  to  worthy 
captains  after  death,  show  forth  praises  more  clearly  than  do  the  Muses  of   Calabria;   and  if  the 
written  word  were  stilled    you  would  not  bear  away  the  guerdon  of  what  you  have  done.     (Carm. 

4.  8.  13-22.) 


Introduction  23 

In  Horace,  then,  to  borrow  the  happy  phrase  of  De  Quincey,  'the 
exquisite  skill  co-operated  with  the  exquisite  nature';  and  the  result  is 
one  of  the  world's  treasures.  And  that  the  world  has  treasured  his 
work  is  abundantly  clear.  Of  all  his  words  none  has  proved  more 
truly  prophetic  than 

Postera 
Crescam  laude  recens. l 

He  has  been  called  the  most  popular  of  poets;  possibly  no  other_clas- 
sical  writer  is  so  often  quoted.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  his 
conciseness  makes  his  verses  lend  themselves  to  quotation;  yet  there 
is  another  reason,  which  is  well  expressed  by  Sellar:2 

'Among  all  ancient  poets  he  suits  the  greatest  variety  of  modern 
tastes.  ...  He  has  an  attraction  not  merely  of  early  association 
for  educated  men  whose  lives  are  cast  in  other  spheres  than  that  of 
literature;  while  to  those  who  seek  in  the  study  of  great  poets  to  gain 
some  temporary  admission  within  the  circle  of  some  of  the  better 
thoughts,  the  finer  fancies,  the  happier  and  more  pathetic  experiences 
of  our  race,  he  is  able  to  afford  this  access.  To  each  successive  age  or 
century,  he  seems  to  express  its  own  familiar  wisdom  and  experience. 
.  .  .  He  is  one  of  the  few  ancient  writers  who  unite  all  the  culti- 
vated nations  of  modern  times  in  a  common  admiration.  They  each 
seem  to  claim  him  as  especially  their  own.' 

Let  it  be  added  that,  as  has  often  been  noticed,  Horace  makes 
an  appeal  to  both  young  and  old.  We  are  told,  indeed,  that  it  takes 
the  weight  of  years  to  bring  a  man  to  a  full  appreciation  of  him;  for 
his  work,  small  in  quantity  though  it  is,  covers  his  whole  life,  and  he 
shows  us  himself  at  each  period,  so  that  there  is  something  for  all. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  above  (p.  7)  that  contemporary  records  of 

Horace  are  of  the   scantiest.     That  his  work  was 

by  his  Contem-  admired  we  may  Satner  from  tne  fact  that  Augustus 

poraries  more  than  once  called  his  Muse   into   requisition, 

and  also  from  the  patronage  with  which  Maecenas 

favored  him;  but  Ovid  (Tristia  4.   10.  49-50)  seems  to  be  the  only 

writer  of  the  times  who  mentions  him : 

Et  tenuit  nostras  numerosus  Horatius  aures; 
Dum  ferit  Ausonia  carmina  culta  lyra.3 

1  In  after  days  I  shall  ever  increase  in  fame.    (Carm.  3.  30.  7-8.) 

2  Horace  and  the  Elegiac  Poets,  p.  4. 

3  And  tuneful  Horace  has  held  our  ears,  when  he  strikes  well-wrought  songs  from  his  Ausonian 
lyre. 


24  The  Influence  of  Horace 

The  adjective  here  applied  to  the  poems  of  Horace  is  worthy  of 
note;  Ovid  evidently  appreciated  his  compatriot's  mastery  of  technique. 
Yet  the  praise  is  mild,  and  its  force  is  diminished  by  the  fact  that 
Horace  is  only  one  in  a  list  of  writers  mentioned  by  the  other  poet, 
some  of  them  of  very  doubtful  merit.  Horace  himself,  if  we  may 
judge  at  all  from  his  own  writings,  would  seem  frequently  to  imply 
that  he  was  considered  inferior  to  epic  poets  such  as  Virgil,  Varius, 
and  Julius. 

Ego  apis  Matinae, 
he  says, 

More  modoque 

.     .     .    operosa  parvus 

Carmina  fingo.1 

Yet,  as  the  centuries  passed,  and  many  of  the  classic  writers 
.  fell  into  oblivion,  Horace  was  not  forgotten.     From 

Middle  Aces  tne  nmt^  century  to  the  thirteenth,2  every  cycle 
shows  a  considerable  number  of  Horatian  quotations 
in  every  important  literature;  and  the  Middle  Ages  produced  more 
than  one  Horatian  specialist  such  as  Conrad  von  Mure.  It  was  the 
didactic  works  of  the  Roman  poet,  however,  that  attracted  most  atten- 
tion; the  lyrics  fell  more  and  more  into  the  background,  and  in  1280 
Hugo  of  Trimberg  wrote: 

Sequitur  Horatius,  prudens  et  discretus, 
Vitiorum  emulus,  firmus  et  mansuetus; 
Qui  tres  libros  etiam  fecit  principales, 
Duosque  dicta verat  minus  usuales; 
Epodon  videlicet,  et  librum  odarum, 
Quos  nostris  temporibus  credo  valere  parum. 
Hinc  poetrie  veteris  titulum  ponamus, 
Sermones  cum  epistolis  dehinc  adiciamus.3 

Notwithstanding  this  neglect  of  what  we  now  consider  the  flower  of 
his  work,  Horace  was  placed  upon  a  lofty  pedestal  by  the  men  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  We  at  once  think  of  Dante's  selection  of  him  as  one  of 
the  five  great  poets  of  antiquity,  in  Inferno  4.  89 — where  he  figures 

1 1,  after  the  custom  and  manner  of  the  Matine  bee,  fashion  in  my  small  way  my  studied  songs. 
(Carm.  4.  2.  27-32.) 

2  A  large  part  of  my  data  for  this  paragraph  comes  from  Dr.  Edward  Moore's  Studies  in  Dante 
(first  series),  pp.  197  ff.    This,  in  turn,  derives  some  of  its  material  from  Dr.  Manitius'  Analeklen  zur 
Geschichte  des  Horaz  im  Mittelalter,  which  I  have  consulted. 

3  Next  comes  Horace,  prudent  and  discreet,  jealous  of  faults,  firm  and  kindly.    He  wrote  three 
principal  books  and  composed  two  that  are  less  familiar;  namely,  a  book  of  epodes  and  one  of  odes, 
which  hi  our  tunes  are,  I  think,  of  little  value.     Hence  let  us  set  down  the  title  of  his  Ancient  Poetry 
[the  Ars  Poetica],  adding  also  his  satires  and  epistles.     (Registrum  Multorum  Auctorum,  11.  66-73.) 


Introduction  25 

as  'Orazio  SatiroS  Long  before  this,  Alcuin,  in  the  literary  circle 
which  he  organized  at  the  court  of  Charlemagne,  assumed  the  name 
of  'Horatius  Flaccus.' 

When  we  come  nearer  home,  and  regard  the  first  great  figure  in 
English  literature,  we  find  only  a  few  traces  of  Horace 

Chaucer  in  Chaucer;  and  these  few,  Professor  Skeat  thinks, 

show  only  a  second-hand  knowledge.1  'It  is  obvious,' 
he  says,  'that  Chaucer  never  saw  Horace's  works  in  the  complete  state; 
if  he  had  done  so,  he  would  have  found  a  writer  after  his  own  heart, 
and  he  would  have  quoted  him  even  more  freely  than  he  has  quoted 
Ovid.'  It  is  worth  noting,  however,  that  the  few  quotations  or 
paraphrases  which  we  do  find  are  all  from  the  didactic  works — a  fact 
which  corroborates  the  statement  made  above  of  the  superior  popu- 
larity of  these  poems. 

But  by  'the  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth'  the  Odes  had  once 
more  come  to  their  own.    We  find  them  trans- 

lated  and  ParaPhrased  bY  the  Poets  of  the  <%; 
quoted  by  the  writers  of  prose;  and  even  set 

down  piecemeal  in  school-books.  We  remember  how  Chiron,  in  Titus 
Andronicus,  says  of  Integer  vitae: 

O!  'tis  a  verse  in  Horace;  I  know  it  well: 
I  read  it  in  the  grammar  long  ago. 

In  fact,  most  of  the  Elizabethans  must  have  been  familiar  with  Horace 
from  early  youth.  We  are  told2  that  'the  afternoon  lessons  of  the  boys 
at  Rotherham  School  [a  typical  grammar  school  of  the  period]  in 
Shakespeare's  time  were  "two  days  in  Horace,  and  two  days  in 
Seneca's  Tragedies;  both  which  they  translated  into  English. "  Ever 
since,  let  it  be  added,  Horace  has  served  as  a  text-book  for  English 
schoolboys;  thus  the  fate  against  which  he  humorously  inveighed  has 
come  upon  him: 

Hoc  quoque  te  [meum  librum]  manet,  ut  pueros  elementa  docentem 
Occupet  extremis  in  vicis  balba  senectus.3 

That  this  dislike  of  having  his  poems  used  as  texts  for  schoolboys  was 
not  without  reason  we  shall  see  when  we  take  up  the  opinions  of  several 
of  the  most  illustrious  of  these  students;  yet  there  is  much  to  be  said 
for  a  system  which  puts  Horace  at  the  end  of  a  man's  tongue. 

1  The  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  ed.  Skeat,  2.  Hi. 

2  J.  W.  Cunliffe,  The  Influence  of  Seneca  on  Elizabethan  Tragedy,  p.  12. 

3  This  also  awaits  you  [my  book],  that  faltering  old  age  shall  seize    upon  you,  when  in  the 
suburban  schools  you  shall  teach  boys  their  beginner's  tasks.     (Epist.  1.  20.  17-18.) 


26  The  Influence  oj  Horace 

It  is  still  a  question  whether  the  greatest  poet  among  the  Eliza- 
bethans knew  Horace.  Since  he  attended  Stratford  Grammar  School, 
it  is  likely  that  he  did;  moreover,  it  seems  that  his  works  contain  inter- 
nal evidence  of  such  a  knowledge.  However  that  may  be,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Ben  Jonson  was  saturated  with  Horace,  even  going  so  far 
as  to  call  himself  by  the  Roman  poet's  name  in  his  Poetaster-,  and 
many  other  writers  of  that  prolific  age  show  a  strong  Horatian  influ- 
ence. 

As  we  come  down  through  the  cavalier  poets,  we    find   the  vig- 

orous  influence  of  Horace,  no  whit  abated.     Her- 

Cavalier  Poets     r^c^'  PernaPs>  echoes  him  oftener  than  do  any  of 

the  others;  but  all  feel  his  attraction.     Milton,  as 

great  a  contrast  to  these  as  could  well  be  imagined,  has  many  remi- 

niscences  of  Horace.    And  so  it  goes  until  we  arrive 

Milton  ^         at  tlie  so~called  classic  period,'  when  most  of  the  Roman 

poets  were  at  the  high  tide  of  popularity  in  England, 

with  Horace  as  one  of  the  leaders. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  our  poet  holds  his  own;  when  a 
.         writer  wished  to  do  a  bit  of  elegant  translat- 

ing'  or  when  he  stood  in  need  of  an  apt  quota~ 
tion,  more  often  than  not  he  turned  to  Horace. 

But  about  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  a  con- 
siderable change  in  English  literature.  Poets  deliberately  turned 
away  from  the  traditions  of  the  'classic  school,'  and  began  to  seek 
new  paths  for  themselves,  or  to  reopen  neglected  ones.  It  might 
be  supposed  that  Horace,  the  favorite  of  the  old  school,  would  be  dis- 
carded by  the  new;  whether  or  not  this  was  the  case,  the  following 
pages  will  attempt  to  show. 

But  before  separately  taking  up  the  great  poets  of  the  age,  we  shall 
do  well  to  pause  for  a  short  time  at  the  two  prin- 

HoTace's3  Work    cipal  divisions  of  Horace's  verse.     These  have  been 
already  referred  to  as  the  didactic  and  the  lyric. 
It  remains  to  see  what  each  group  includes,  and  what  influence  each 
has  exerted. 

The  didactic  poems  comprise  the  Satires,  the  Epistles,  and  the 
Ars  Poetica.  They  are  all  written  in  dactylic  hexameter,  and  they  deal 
with  a  variety  of  subjects  in  a  pleasing  conversational  way — sermoni 
propiora,  as  Horace  himself  puts  it.  Some  are  merely  narratives  of 
events  in  the  poet's  daily  life,  such  as  the  journey  to  Brundisium;  others 
rebuke  the  follies  of  the  time — not  after  the  manner  of  a  Juvenal  or  a 


Introduction  27 

Swift,  but  in  a  gentler  way  which  would  correct  without  stinging. 
'Come,  let  us  reason  together,'  these  poems  seem  to  say.  'Let  us  look 
impartially  at  this  or  that,  and  see  how  foolish  and  harmful  it  is.' 
Others  treat  of  philosophy  —  the  poet's  philosophy  of  life,  which  he 
has  worked  out  for  himself.  Some,  again,  discuss  literary  matters; 
many  are  autobiographical.  All  are  precious,  not  only  for  their  in- 
herent charm,  but  as  a  record  of  the  opinions  and  actions  of  a  poet ; 
they  might  almost  be  entitled,  as  was  The  Prelude  of  Wordsworth, 
'the  growth  of  a  poet's  mind.'  But  to  none  of  them  would  Horace 
himself  have  given  the  name  poetry.  As  he  says  in  the  Satires, 

Primum  ego  me  illorum,  dederim  quibus  esse  poetas, 
Excerpam  numero.1 

And  at  the  beginning  of  his  first  epistle  he  laments: 

Non  eadem  est  aetas,  non  mens 

Nunc  itaque  et  versus  et  cetera  ludicra  pono.2 

When  we  come  to  the  lyrics,  however,  the  case  is  different.  Their 
bulk  is  small — four  books  of  Odes,  one  of  Epodes,  and  the  Carmen 
Saeculare;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  they  contain  'songs  for  man  or  woman, 
of  all  sizes.'  They  range  in  tone  'from  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to 
severe,'  and  each  style  is  fittingly  handled. 

We  have  already  noticed  that  during  the  Middle  Ages  the  didactic 
works  of  Horace  were  in  the  foreground,  the  lyrics  almost  forgotten. 
The  Renaissance  brought  a  change;  and  throughout  the  latter  half  of 
the  sixteenth  and  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Odes 
seem  to  have  exerted  the  greater  influence.  This  was  natural;  for  the 
poets  of  those  days  were  in  the  main  essentially  singers,  caring  but 
little  for  ethical  teachings,  and  interested  in  musical  language  and 
metres,  as  well  as  in  the  material  suitable  to  lyric  treatment.  The 
pendulum  swung  the  other  way  in  the  'classic  period,'  and  the  didactic 
poems  came  again  to  the  fron£.  The  insistence  of  Horace  on  polish  and 
finish — an  insistence  chiefly  to  be  marked  in  his  Satires  and  Epistles 
— could  not  fail  to  attract  such  lovers  of  elegance  as  the  writers  of  the 
age  of  Anne;  his  hexameters  suited  ears  which  preferred  the  heroic 
couplet  to  any  other  form  of  verse.  Moreover,  Horace  was  a  satir- 
ist; and  the  times  were  rich  in  satire,  with  him  as  one  of  the  models. 

1 1  omit  myself  first  of  all  from  the  number  of  those  whom  1  would  allow  to  be  poets.  (Serm. 
1.  4.  39-40.) 

2  My  age  is  not  the  same,  nor  my  mind;  so  now  I  lay  aside  my  verses  and  the  rest  of  my  playthings. 
(Epist.  1.  1.4-10.) 


28  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Therefore  literary  epistles  in  verse  and  imitations  of  Horace  —  always 
of  the  didactic  Horace  —  ran  riot,  while  the  Ars  Poetica  was  accepted 
as  the  gospel  of  good  taste  in  writing.  An  age  which,  with  all  its  mer- 
its, was  usually  so  unnatural  in  its  treatment  of  external  nature,  and 
so  little  interested  in  the  subjectivity  which  is  the  essence  of  the  lyric, 
could  hardly  be  expected  fully  to  appreciate  the  Odes  of  Horace. 

With  the  return  of  the  subjective  to  poetry  —  in  the  period  with 
which  this  thesis  deals  —  the  lyrics  of  Horace  were  once  again  the  most 
popular  part  of  his  work,  though  the  Satires  and  Epistles  were  not  for- 
gotten. Even  now  one  occasionally  hears  an  elderly  person  speak  of 
'Horace  the  satirist,'  although  probably  for  one  reader  of  the  didactic 
poems  there  are  six  of  the  Odes.  This  is  unfortunate  :  we  cannot  pro- 
perly know  the  poet  without  seeing  him  from  all  sides. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  popularity  which  Horace  has  enjoyed  among 

our  men  of  letters,  we  are  perplexed  when 
With  whom  may  we  we  look  about  for  some  writer 


compare  .Horace  f 

to  compare  him.    Is  there  any  one  who  may 

claim  the  honor  of  being  his  English  analogue?  Not  Ben  Jonson,  for 
all  his  own  confidence  in  his  similarity  to  the  Roman  poet  whom  he  so 
admired.  Indeed,  we  can  hardly  imagine  two  great  writers  tempera- 
mentally farther  apart  than  the  genial  Augustan  and  the  often  un- 
genial  Elizabethan.  Horace  may  now  and  again  have  been  moved 
to  'strip  the  ragged  follies  of  the  time  naked  as  at  their  birth,'  but 
his  was  no  'armed  and  resolved  hand,'  no  'whip  of  steel.'  Rather  did 

he  believe: 

Ridiculum  acri 
Fortius  et  melius  magnas  plerumque  secat  res.1 

Points  of  close  resemblance  we  may  find  between  the  nature  of 
Horace  as  revealed  in  his  writings  and  the  natures  of  a  score  or  more  of 
authors  prominent  in  our  literature.  Addison's  admirers,  moved,  we 
must  suppose,  by  the  gentle  satire  of  the  Spectator  papers,  have  hailed 
him  as  the  English  Horace.  Stevenson,  perhaps  through  his  inherent 
Epicureanism,  often  strongly  reminds  us  of  Horace  in  his  Epistles  and 
Satires.  More  Horatian  than  either  of  these  is  Thackeray,  who,  more- 
over, has  so  rare  a  knowledge  of  the  Roman  poet  as  always  to  be  ready, 
so  it  seems,  with  an  apt  quotation.  None  of  these  men,  however,  can 
for  a  moment  compare  with  Horace  in  his  first  and  preferred  capacity  — 
that  of  writer  of  lofty  and  beautiful  poetry.  We  turn  to  Herrick,  who 
has  his  supporters;  and,  indeed,  he  does  at  times  recall  to  us  the  singer 

1  Ridicule  very  often  decides  things  of  importance  better  and  more  effectually  than  severity. 
(Serm.  1.  10.  14-15.) 


Introduction  29 

of  Lydia  and  Chloe,  Lalage  and  Leuconoe.  But  that  which  is  high 
and  serious  in  Horace — the  often  neglected  side — finds  no  parallel  in 
Herrick,  whose  flights  are  seldom  above  the  roof  of  his  parsonage, 
despite  his  own  claim  that  he  sings  'of  heaven.'  Many  of  our  greater 
poets  from  time  to  time  remind  us  of  this  lofty  Horace — the  attempt 
of  the  following  pages  will  be  in  part  to  show  this;  but  none  is  so  near 
to  him  as  to  challenge  comparison  in  all  respects. 

Is  this  to  say  that  Horace  is  greater  than  any  English  writer?  Not 
at  all:  the  giants  of  our  literature  are  as  far  beyond  him  as  is  Homer, 
and  he  would  be  the  first  to  admit  it.  But,  notwithstanding  this  fact, 
there  is  no  one  who  is  to  English  letters  what  Horace  is  to  Roman — 
nay,  to  all — letters.  He  is  unlike  all  others. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  may  now  go  on  to  investigate  just  what 
sort  of  influence  Horace  exerted  on  each  of  the  foremost  poets  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  And  the  first  we  meet  is  Wordsworth,  whose 
Lyrical  Ballads,  published  in  1798,  mark  the  beginning  of  nineteenth- 
century  poetry. 

The  opinion  has  somehow  become  prevalent  that  Wordsworth  as 
w  H  rth  a  wr^er  was  amiost  uninfluenced  by  the  classics,  or, 
indeed,  by  any  books — that  he  was  a  poet  largely 
dependent  upon  his  'spark  of  nature's  fire.'  There  could  hardly  be  a 
greater  mistake.  Many  of  the  poet's  utterances  which  go  to  disprove 
this  have  been  preserved,  would  people  but  look  for  them.  One  is 
particularly  relevant  to  the  present  inquiry:  'First  read  the  ancient 
classical  authors;  then  come  to  us\  and  you  will  be  able  to  judge  for 
yourself  which  of  us  is  worth  reading.' 1 

Wordsworth  was  himself  well-read  in  at  least  the  Roman  half  of 
classical  literature.  The  reader  of  his  poems  who  is  also  a  student  of 
Latin  hardly  needs  the  statement  which  the  poet  makes  in  a  letter  to 
Walter  Savage  Landor  (April  20,  1822): 

'My  acquaintance  with  Virgil,  Horace,  Lucretius,  and  Catullus  is 
intimate.' 

He  adds,  indeed,  that  he  'never  read  them  with  a  critical  view  to 
composition';  but  it  is  certain  that  their  thoughts,  and  often  their 
language,  entered  into  the  texture  of  his  verse,  on  some  occasions,  as  we 
shall  see,  becoming  so  closely  interwoven  with  his  own  thought  that  it 
is  difficult  to  separate  warp  from  woof. 

In  the  passage  just  quoted,  Horace  shares  the  honors  with  three 
great  compatriots;  but  other  testimony  places  him  above  any  of  them 

1  Christopher  Wordsworth,  Memoirs  of  Wordsworth  2.  477. 


30  The  Influence  of  Horace 

in  Wordsworth's  favor.  Bishop  Wordsworth1  tells  us  that  his  uncle 
said: 

'How  graceful  is  Horace's  modesty  in  his  "Ego  apis  Matinae  more 
modoque,"  as  contrasted  with  the  Dircaean  Swan!  Horace  is  my 
great  favorite:  I  love  him  dearly.' 

Again  Wordsworth  says,  in  his  Letter  to  a  Friend  of  Robert  Burns : 

'It  is  delightful  to  read  what,  in  the  happy  exercise  of  his  own 
genius,  Horace  chooses  to  communicate  of  himself  and  his  friends.' 

We  may  add  to  this  the  evidence  of  two  of  Wordsworth's  friends. 
The  Reverend  Perceval  Graves  says  of  the  poet: 

'He  was  a  very  great  admirer  of  Virgil.  .  .  .  From  him,  and 
Horace  who  was  an  especial  favorite,  and  Lucretius,  he  used  to  quote 
much.'2 

And  De  Quincey  tells  us,  in  his  Literary  and  Lake  Reminiscences: 

'Wordsworth  finally  became  a  very  sufficient  master  of  the  Latin 

language,  and  read  certain  favorite  authors,  especially  Horace,  with  a 

critical  nicety;  and  with  a  feeling  for  the  felicities  of  his  composition.'3 

It  is  De  Quincey,  too,  who  writes,  in  connection  with  Coleridge's 

Latinity  (in  Coleridge  and  Opium-Eating) : 

'It  is  remarkable  that  Wordsworth,  educated  most  negligently  at 
Hawkshead  School,  subsequently,  by  reading  the  lyric  poetry  of 
Horace,  simply  for  his  own  delight  as  a  student  of  composition,  made 
himself  a  master  of  Latinity  in  its  most  difficult  form.'4 

The  reason  given  for  Wordsworth's  reading  of  Horace  is  evidently  a 
mistake,  since  it  contradicts  the  poet's  own  words;  but  with  regard  to 
the  knowledge  itself,  De  Quincey  is  doubtless  an  able  judge. 

I  have  been  able  to  find  but  one  dissenting  voice  on  this  question, 
and  that  is  recorded  in  a  letter  from  Charles  Lloyd  the  younger  to  his 
father  (1809),  with  reference  to  the  latter's  translations  of  Horace: 

'Both  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  and  Southey  profess  to  admire  thy 
translation  of  Homer  very  much,  and  often  voluntarily  introduce  the 
subject  in  order  to  express  their  commendations;  but,  as  a  reason  for 
omitting  to  obey  thy  injunction  which  applies  equally  to  all  three,  I 
must  inform  thee  that  I  know  they  have  next  to  a  contempt  for  Horace ; 
and  the  best  translations  that  could  possibly  be  conceived  of  his  verses 
would  not,  I  believe,  give  them  any  pleasure.' 

1  Memoirs  of  Wordsworth  2.  479. 

2  See  Knight's  Life  of  Wordsworth  2.  328. 

3  Works,  ed.  Masson,  2.  265. 

4  Works,  ed.  Masson,  5.  204. 


Introduction  31 

Lloyd  then  goes  on  to  enumerate  particular  reasons  for  his  not 
showing  the  translations  to  the  three  in  question.  Wordsworth  'is  so 
much  occupied  .  .  .  with  a  pamphlet  which  he  has  in  the  press  on 
the  Portuguese  Convention';  Coleridge  is  'miserable  in  mind  and  body'; 
Sou  they  has  'an  invincible  dislike  to  Horace.'  Of  him  alone  is  this 
said  individually;  and  when  we  recall  that  Wordsworth's  pamphlet 
bears  on  its  title-page  a  long  quotation  from  Horace,  we  are  not  in- 
clined to  attach  great  importance  to  Lloyd's  inclusive  statement. 

But  what  in  Horace  especially  appeals  to  Wordsworth?  Why 
should  the  later  poet  speak  of  the  earlier  as  'my  great  favorite'? 
The  full  appreciation  of  poetry  must  be  based  upon  a  sympathy 
existing  between  author  and  reader.  It  remains  to  discover  wherein 
lies  this  sympathy  between  the  Roman  and  the  English  bards. 

Wordsworth  himself  gives  us  the  key  to  his  preference  when,  in 
praising  Horace,  he  speaks  of  his  'graceful  modesty,'  and  of  'what  he 
chooses  to  communicate  of  himself  and  his  friends.'  A  further  testi- 
mony is  found  in  the  poem  called  Liberty  (11.  96-110): 

Let  easy  mirth  his  social  hours  inspire, 
And  fiction  animate  his  sportive  lyre, 
Attuned  to  verse  that,  crowning  light  Distress, 
With  garlands,  cheats  her  into  happiness; 
Give  me  the  humblest  note  of  those  sad  strains 
Drawn  forth  by  pressure  of  his  gilded  chains, 
As  a  chance-sunbeam  from  his  memory  fell 
Upon  the  Sabine  farm  he  loved  so  well; 
Or  when  the  prattle  of  Bandusia's  spring 
Haunted  his  ear — he  only  listening — 
He  proud  to  please,  above  all  rivals,  fit 
To  win  the  palm  of  gaiety  and  wit; 
He,  doubt  not,  with  involuntary  dread, 
Shrinking  from  each  new  favor  to  be  shed, 
By  the  world's  Ruler,  on  his  honored  head! 

Here,  then,  is  the  Horace  whom  Wordsworth  'loved  dearly' — not 
the  humorist,  nor  the  singer  who  strove  to  forget  or  cover  up  gloomy 
thoughts;  not  particularly,  it  would  seem,  the  patriot  deeply  concerned 
for  his  country's  welfare,  nor  the  apostle  of  moderation  and  content- 
ment, though  in  both  interests  the  Roman  poet  and  Wordsworth  had 
much  in  common;  but,  above  all,  the  lover  of  external  nature,  the 
bard  who  modestly  considered  his  genius  tennis  grandia,  the  con- 
versational recorder  of  little  daily  happenings.  Horace  resting  at  ease 
beneath  ilex  or  arbutus,  listening  to  'the  prattle  of  Bandusia's  spring' 


32  The  Influence  of  Horace 

and  resolving  to  immortalize  it,  or  Horace  watching  the  sun  fall  below 
the  'continuous  mountains'  which  protected  his  farm,  would  have  a 
peculiar  attraction  for  the  poet  who  sympathetically  scrutinized 
celandine  and  daffodil,  cuckoo  and  green  linnet;  and  Horace  spending  a 
pleasant  evening  by  his  modest  fireside,  while  out  of  doors  the  snow  fell 
so  deep  that  nee  iam  sustineant  onus  sifoae  laborantes,  must  seem  near 
akin  to  the  man  who  loved  to  sit 

In  the  loved  presence  of  my  cottage-fire, 
And  listen  to  the  flapping  of  the  flame, 
Or  kettle  whispering  its  faint  undersong. 

One  who  says  of  himself, 

The  moving  accident  is  not  my  trade; 
To  freeze  the  blood  I  have  no  ready  arts : 
'Tis  my  delight,  alone  in  summer  shade, 
To  pipe  a  simple  song  for  thinking  hearts, 

would  be  sure  to  admire  the  'graceful  modesty'  of  Horace  as  shown  in 
the  famous  passage  about  the  'Matine  bee,'  and  elsewhere.  And  above 
all,  the  things  that  Horace  'chooses  to  communicate  of  himself 
and  his  friends'  would  be  appreciated  by  one  who  knew  so  well  as 
Wordsworth  the  value  of  companionable  friendship.  This  aspect  of 
the  English  poet  is  often  neglected;  but  we  have  only  to  read  the  let- 
ters of  the  Wordsworth  family  to  realize  that  the  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances which  had  its  centre  at  Grasmere  was  held  to  this  centre  by  ties 
unusually  close.  Just  as  Horace  had  for  friends  Maecenas,  Virgil, 
Aristius  Fuscus,  so  Wordsworth  had  the  Beaumonts,  Coleridge,  Henry 
Crabb  Robinson,  and  others.  Moreover,  the  man  who  could  write 
The  Prelude,  as  well  as  other  autobiographical  poems  (for  Wordsworth 
also  is  very  self -revealing),  could  not  fail  to  enjoy  the  confidences  of 
Horace  about  himself. 

In  view  of  all  this,  it  is  not  surprising  that  we  find  Wordsworth  the 
most  Horatian  of  all  the  poets  considered  in  this  study.  Others  may 
quote  more  frequently;  but  it  is  he  who  appears  most  thoroughly  to  have 
assimilated  the  spirit  of  Horace.  At  times  he  seems  actually  to  re- 
produce that  spirit — or  rather,  the  part  of  it  which  he  especially 
admired. 

Very  different  is  the  case  of  Wordsworth's  fellow-poet  and  friend, 

Coleridge.     De  Quincey  points  out  (and  doubtless  truly 

ge*    enough,  since  his  testimony  is  corroborated  by  what  we 

know  of  the  training  afforded  by  Christ's  Hospital)  that  the  early 

linguistic  studies  of  Coleridge  were  necessarily  thorough  and  far- 


Introduction  33 

reaching;  but  he  goes  on  to  say:1 

'Latin,  from  his  regular  scholastic  training,  naturally  he  read  with  a 
scholar's  fluency;  and  indeed  he  read  constantly  in  authors  such  as 
Petrarch,  Erasmus,  Calvin,  etc.,  whose  prose  works  he  could  not  then 
have  found  in  translations.  But  Coleridge  had  not  cultivated  an 
acquaintance  with  the  delicacies  of  classic  Latinity.' 

In  Coleridge's  own  high  praise  of  his  schoolmaster,  the  Reverend 
James  Boyer,  he  makes  no  mention  of  having  studied  Horace  at 
Christ's  Hospital,  save  for  an  inclusive  'those  [poets]  of  the  Augustan 
era';  and  indeed  his  only  reference,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  dis- 
cover, to  his  having  used  our  poet  as  a  text-book  occurs  in  a  letter, 
written  to  his  brother  from  Cambridge  (January  24,  1792),  regarding 
a  scholarship  examination: 

'The  examination  for  my  year  is  "  the  last  book  of  Homer,  and 
Horace's  De  Arte  Poetica. "  ' 

Evidently  any  early  acquaintance  with  Horace  which  he  might 
have  had  made  no  deep  impression  on  his  mind,  although  three  early 
poems — Easter  Holidays,  Dura  Navis,  and  Nil  Pejus  est  Caelibe  Vita,  all 
written  in  1787 — show  traces  of  Horatian  influence.  But  neither  then 
nor  later  do  we  find  evidence  of  any  real  fondness;  in  Table  Talk,  col- 
lected by  Coleridge's  nephew  during  the  last  years  of  the  poet's  life, 
virtually  every  well-known  Latin  author  except  Horace  is  discussed. 

There  are,  however,  in  Coleridge's  prose  writings  a  few  expressions 
of  admiration  for  this  poet.  The  most  enthusiastic  is  from  A  Lay 
Sermon'. 

'I  will  refer  you  to  the  darling  of  the  polished  court  of  Augustus,  to 
the  man  whose  works  have  been  in  all  ages  deemed  the  models  of  good 
sense,  and  are  still  the  pocket  companions  of  those  who  pride  them- 
selves on  uniting  the  scholar  with  the  gentleman.  This  accomplished 
man  of  the  world  has  given  an  account  of  the  subjects  of  conversation 
between  the  illustrious  statesmen  who  governed  and  the  brightest 
luminaries  who  then  adorned  the  empire  of  the  civilized  world.'2 

The  quotation  from  the  Satires  which  follows  leaves  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  who  is  meant  by  'this  accomplished  man  of  the  world/ 
As  for  the  qualities  which  Coleridge  praises  in  Horace,  they  are  the 
very  ones  which  Wordsworth  tells  us  did  not  appeal  to  him.  Yet, 
generous  as  this  praise  is,  there  is  something  about  it  that  does  not 

1  Coleridge  and  Opium-Eating,  Works,  ed.  Masson,  5.  204. 

2  Works,  ed.  Shedd,  1.  435-436. 


34  The  Influence  of  Horace 

ring  true.  It  is  as  if  the  writer  accepted  the  fact  of  Horace's  excel- 
lence because  it  had  been  agreed  upon  by  'all  ages,'  but  at  the  same 
time  did  not  himself  feel  any  of  the  things  he  was  saying. 

More  spontaneous  is  a  sentence  from  a  letter  to  Thomas  Poole 
(January  28,  1810): 

'Read,  for  instance,  Milton's  prose  tracts,  and  only  try  to  conceive 
them  translated  into  the  style  of  The  Spectator,  or  the  finest  part  of 
Wordsworth's  pamphlet.  It  would  be  less  absurd  to  wish  that  the 
serious  Odes  of  Horace  had  been  written  in  the  same  style  as  his 
Satires  and  Epistles.'' 

We  see  from  this  that  Coleridge  realized  that  Horace  had  written 
serious  poems — a  fact  which,  as  we  know,  many  readers  miss;  and  the 
implication  is  that  he  admired  them,  and  considered  their  style  suited 
to  their  subjects. 

Again,  we  find  Horace  mentioned  in  Coleridge's  notes  on  Luther's 
Table  Talk: 

'  "  Fulgentius  [says  Luther]  is  the  best  poet,  and  far  above  Horace 
both  with  sentences,  fair  speeches,  and  good  actions;  he  is  well  worthy 
to  be  ranked  and  numbered  with  and  among  the  poets. " 

'Der  Teufel!    Surely  the  epithets  should  be  reversed.     . 
The  super-Horatian.  effulgence  of  Master  Foolgentius!    O  Swan!  thy 
critical  cygnets  are  but  goslings.'  * 

In  criticizing  Wordsworth's  theory  of  poetic  diction,  Coleridge 
writes  with  reference  to  irrelevant  particularization  in  composition: 

'Nothing  but  biography  can  justify  this.  If  it  be  admissible  even 
in  a  novel,  it  must  be  one  in  the  manner  of  De  Foe's,  that  were  meant  to 
pass  for  histories,  not  in  the  manner  of  Fielding's.  .  .  .  Much 
less,  then,  can  it  be  legitimately  introduced  in  a  poem,  the  characters  of 
which,  amid  the  strongest  individualization,  must  still  remain  repre- 
sentative. The  precepts  of  Horace  on  this  point  are  grounded  on  the 
nature  both  of  poetry  and  of  the  human  mind.  They  are  not  more 
peremptory  than  wise  and  prudent.' 2 

This  raises  an  interesting  point.  Coleridge  the  poet,  as  we  shall 
further  observe,  seems  not  to  have  been  particularly  drawn  to  Horace 
the  poet;  but  Coleridge  the  literary  critic  would  not  fail  to  be  im- 
pressed by  the  value  of  Horace's  criticism.  This  is  also  shown  by 
another  quotation  from  the  Biographia  Liter  aria\ 

'But  it  was  as  little  objected  by  others  as  dreamt  of  by  the  poet 

1  Works,  ed.  Shedd,  5.  298. 

2  Biographia  Liter  aria,  ed.  Shawcross,  2.106-107. 


Introduction  35 

[Southey]  himself  that  he  preferred  careless  and  prosaic  lines  on  rule 
and  of  forethought,  or  indeed  that  he  pretended  to  any  other  art  or 
theory  of  poetic  diction  besides  that  which  we  may  all  learn  from 
Horace,  Quintilian,  the  admirable  dialogue  De  Causis  Corruptae  Elo- 
quentiae,  or  Strada's  Prolusions.'1 

Here,  then,  is  all  the  direct  testimony  that  we  have  about  Cole- 
ridge's feeling  for  Horace;  for  we  can  attach  no  importance  to  the 
statement  of  Charles  Lloyd  (see  p.  26).  When  we  turn  to  the  indi- 
rect evidence  afforded  by  the  traces  of  Horace  discernible  in  Cole- 
ridge's writings,  two  points  are  at  once  noticeable.  First,  these  traces 
are  nearly  all  quotations,  and  for  the  most  part  are  found  in  the 
prose  writings.  Now  Coleridge,  like  other  Englishmen  educated  in 
public  schools,  liked  to  scatter  fragments  of  Latin  throughout  his 
prose;  and  all  the  important  Roman  authors  were  grist  for  his  mill. 
The  second  point  is  a  corollary  of  the  first:  the  influence  of  Horace 
on  Coleridge's  poetry  is  almost  negligible.  This  is  more  truly  the 
case  with  him  than  with  any  other  poet  we  shall  study,  Keats  alone 
excepted.  It  is  not  that  Coleridge  did  not  know  Horace,  but  simply 
that  he  was  not  affected  by  him.  The  two  men,  in  the  capacity  of 
poet,  are  utterly  unlike.  Coleridge,  with  his  taste  for  the  intricacies 
of  German  metaphysics,  could  hardly  agree  with  Horace's  Epicurean 
philosophy  and  his  precepts  for  right  living;  and  Coleridge's  subjects 
for  poetry  are  not  those  of  Horace.  Who  can  imagine  the  latter  treat- 
ing such  material  as  that  of  Christabel  or  The  Rime  of  the  Ancient 
Mariner?  Temperamentally  the  two  were  different;  and  accordingly 
the  one  did  not  to  any  appreciable  extent  react  on  the  other.  To  Cole- 
ridge, Horace  was  'the  darling  of  the  polished  court  of  Augustus,'  and 
little  more. 

When  we  turn  to  Byron,  we  find  that  most  of  those  who  know 
g  anything  of  his  opinions  about  Horace  know  them  by 

only  one  line: 

Then  farewell,  Horace — whom  I  hated  so.1 

Thus  the  poet  receives  an  undeserved  reputation  for  absolute  scorn  of 
Horace — a  reputation  which  would  never  be  his  if  his  detractors  would 
read  no  more  than  the  context  of  the  line.  I  quote  here  the  three 
stanzas  which  contain  the  complete  thought: 

These  hills  seem  things  of  lesser  dignity; 
All,  save  the  lone  Soracte's  height,  displayed 

1  Biogr aphia  Literaria,  ed.  Shawcross,  1.  40. 
3  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  4.  77. 


36  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Not  now  in  snow,  which  asks  the  lyric  Roman's  aid 

For  our  remembrance,  and  from  out  the  plain 
Heaves  like  a  long-swept  wave  about  to  break, 
And  on  the  curl  hangs  pausing:  not  in  vain 
May  he  who  will  his  recollections  rake, 
And  quote  in  classic  raptures,  and  awake 
The  hills  with  Latin  echoes — I  abhorred 
Too  much  to  conquer  for  the  Poet's  sake 
The  drilled  dull  lesson,  forced  down  word  by  word 
In  my  repugnant  youth,  with  pleasure  to  record 

Aught  that  recalls  the  daily  drug  which  turned 
My  sickening  memory;  and,  though  Time  hath  taught 
My  mind  to  meditate  what  then  it  learned, 
Yet  such  the  fixed  inveteracy  wrought 
By  the  impatience  of  my  early  thought, 
That,  with  the  freshness  wearing  out  before 
My  mind  could  relish  what  it  might  have  sought, 
If  free  to  choose,  I  cannot  now  restore 
Its  health — but  what  it  then  detested,  still  abhor. 

Then  farewell,  Horace — whom  I  hated  so, 
Not  for  thy  faults,  but  mine:  it  is  a  curse 
To  understand,  not  feel  thy  lyric  flow, 
To  comprehend,  but  never  love  thy  verse; 
Although  no  deeper  Moralist  rehearse 
Our  little  life,  nor  Bard  prescribe  his  art, 
Nor  livelier  Satirist  the  conscience  pierce, 
Awakening  without  wounding  the  touched  heart, 
Yet  fare  thee  well — upon  Soracte's  ridge  we  part. 

This  serves  to  explain  any  positive  dislike  that  Byron  manifests 
for  Horace;  it  lies  rooted  in  the  memory  of  school-days,  when  studying 
Latin  was  a  required  task.  Years  afterward  we  find  Tennyson  mak- 
ing the  same  complaint;  but  Tennyson  outgrew  his  distaste,  while 
Byron,  it  would  seem,  never  did.  Moore  says : 

'It  was  not  till  released  from  the  duty  of  reading  Virgil  as  a  task 
that  Gray  could  feel  himself  capable  of  enjoying  the  beauties  of  that 
poet;  and  Lord  Byron  was,  to  the  last,  unable  to  vanquish  a  similar 
prepossession  with  which  the  same  sort  of  school  association  had 
inoculated  him  against  Horace.' l 

Yet  it  is  dangerous  to  accept  the  statement  without  qualifica- 
tion. It  is  never  safe  to  judge  a  man  on  partial  evidence;  and  it  is 
doubly  unsafe  in  the  case  of  Byron,  who  wrote  impulsively,  and 
whose  opinions  were  so  changeful  that  after  reading  his  most  positive 


Life  of  Byron  1.  98 


Introduction  37 

assertions  we  find  ourselves  asking:  'Will  he  have  the  same  feeling  the 
next  day?'  To  take  a  single  instance,  we  find  him  writing  to  Murray, 
after  the  publication  of  Keats'  Hyperion : 

'Here  are  [sic]  Johnny  Keats'  .  .  .  poetry.  .  .  .  Pray 
send  me  no  more  poetry  but  what  is  rare  and  decidedly  good.  There  is 
such  a  trash  of  Keats  and  the  like  upon  my  tables  that  I  am  ashamed  to 
look  at  them.  ...  No  more  Keats,  I  entreat: — flay  him  alive;  if 
you  don't,  I  must  skin  him  myself:  there  is  no  bearing  the  drivelling 
idiotism  of  the  Manikin.' 

A  year  later  he  writes: 

'My  indignation  at  Mr.  Keats'  depreciation  of  Pope  has  hardly 
permitted  me  to  do  justice  to  his  own  genius,  which,  malgre  all  the 
fantastic  fopperies  of  his  style,  was  undoubtedly  of  great  promise. 
His  fragment  of  Hyperion  seems  actually  inspired  by  the  Titans,  and  is 
as  sublime  as  Aeschylus.  He  is  a  loss  to  our  literature.' 

Nevertheless,  though  it  is  difficult  to  say  anything  definite  about 
the  opinions  of  a  man  who  was  so  unstable,  it  is  probably  true  that 
Byron  never  greatly  cared  for  Horace,  and  this  despite  the  fact  that 
he  quotes  him  copiously.  As  we  have  seen,  the  English  poet  was 
forced  into  a  close  acquaintance  with  Latin  at  Harrow;  and  that  'al- 
most preternatural'  memory  of  his,  of  which  Mary  Shelley  speaks, 
permanently  recorded  these  early  impressions,  though  often,  let  us 
add,  inexactly.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  we  find  him  writing  on 
the  fly-leaf  of  his  Scriptores  Graeci,1  where  were  inscribed  the  names 
of  some  old  friends  at  school: 

Eheu  fugaces,  Postume,  Postume, 
Labuntur  anni; 

and  he  scattered  phrases  from  Horace  through  his  correspondence. 
Occasionally  he  gives  the  reference  for  his  quotation,  showing  that 
he  did  not  always  disdain  verifying,  despite  his  youthful  vaunt  in  his 
List  of  Historical  Writers  whose  Works  I  Have  Perused  in  Different 
Languages  (1807):  'Greek  and  Latin  without  number;  —  these  last  I 
shall  give  up  in  future.'2 

Notwithstanding  these  frequent  quotations,  Byrons  seems  always 
to  speak  of  Horace  in  a  rather  patronizing  manner.  'The  great  little 
poet,'  he  calls  him  in  Don  Juan  (14.  77);  and  in  spite  of  the  regret  ex- 

1  See  Moore's  Life  of  Byron  1.91. 

2  Moore,  Life  of  Byron  1.  143. 


38  The  Influence  of  Horace 

pressed  in  the  passage  from  Childe  Harold  (above,  pp.  31-32),  we 
cannot  help  feeling  that  the  'curse'  is  one  to  which  Byron  willingly 
submits,  indeed  taking  some  pride  in  his  idiosyncrasy.  The  'lyric 
flow'  of  Horace  he  never  attains,  even  at  his  best,  and  therefore 
it  was  inevitable,  considering  the  kind  of  man  he  was,  that  he  should 
underrate  it.  It  is  characteristic  of  Byron  to  be  careless  in  his  use  of 
language,  both  as  regards  sound  and  sense.  He  wrote  easily  and  rap- 
idly— in  hora  saepe  ducentos  -versus  dictabat  stans  pede  in  uno,  as 
Horace  says  of  Lucilius;  and  he  could  not  appreciate  the  exquisite  skill 
and  pains  with  which  the  other  molded  his  verse.  He  would  rather 
scorn  such  care  for  detail;  and  although  he  could  paraphrase  the  Ars 
Poetica,  he  could  not  benefit  by  all  its  precepts. 

All  this  bears  upon  Horace  as  a  lyric  poet.  When  we  come  to  the 
second  division  of  his  work,  there  is  another  story  to  tell.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  the  praise  given  in  Childe  Harold  is  to  Horace  the  'mor- 
alist,' the  'satirist,'  and  the  'prescriber  of  his  art.'  In  other  words, 
Byron  cared  most  for  the  Epistles,  the  Satires,  and  the  Ars  Poetica. 

Byron  himself  was  a  satirist  of  extraordinary  power.  Don  Juan, 
generally  conceded  to  be  his  greatest  work,  is  mainly  satirical;  and 
many  of  his  other  poems  belong  to  this  genre.  We  are  at  once  led  to 
ask  whether  these  satires  show  the  spirit  of  Horace — that  spirit  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  preferred  argument  to  invective.  But  the  answer 
to  such  a  question  must  be  negative.  Byron  could  comment  ad- 
miringly on  Horace's  power  of  'awakening  without  wounding  the 
touched  heart';  but  when  he  himself  came  to  deal  with  the  things 
in  the  universe  to  which  he  objected,  he  was  usually  as  savage  as 
Juvenal  or  Persius.  Either  he  adopted  a  cynical  attitude  towards 
the  follies  of  mankind,  or  he  loosed  himself  from  all  restraint,  and 
launched  forth  into  bitterness  which  a  century  after  makes  us  wince. 
Horace  nearly  always  refers  to  the  poets  of  his  time  with  great  gen- 
erosity, and  when  he  finds  fault  does  it  without  leaving  a  sting;  we 
cannot  imagine  him  uttering  the  insults  which  Byron  heaped  upon 
Wordsworth,  upon  Keats,  and  above  all  upon  Southey — but  indeed, 
upon  almost  all  contemporary  men  of  letters. 

We  now  come  to  the  closest  approach  of  Byron  to  Horace — the 
Hints  from  Horace,  a  paraphrase  of  the  Ars  Poetica.  Byron  took  a 
greater  interest  in  this  than  in  any  of  his  other  works.  'I  look  upon  it 
and  my  Pulci  as  by  far  the  best  things  of  my  doing,'  he  writes  to 
Murray  in  1821,  ten  years  after  making  the  paraphrase;  and  he  shows 


Introduction  39 

unwonted  eagerness  about  the  proof-sheets  of  it.  Moore,  too,  men- 
tions this  'preference  of  the  Horatian  Paraphrase.'1 

It  seems  strange  enough  that  so  negligent  an  artist  as  Byron  should 
choose  to  work  with  a  theory  of  poetry;  but  it  becomes  less  strange 
when  we  read  the  Hints.  In  the  precepts  for  writing,  Byron  in  gen- 
eral merely  translates  Horace,  making  good  his  boast,  found  in  a  letter 
to  Murray,  of  his  fidelity  to  the  original.  He  substitutes  names,  but 
not  ideas;  he  is  simply  transcribing  precepts  which  he  himself  usually 
honors  in  the  breach.  But  frequently  he  uses  the  Horatian  maxims 
to  introduce  digressions  of  his  own,  and  these  are  pure  Byronic  satire. 
The  interpolations  constitute  a  large  part  of  the  poem,  and  make  it 
rather  a  piece  of  bitter  satirical  verse  than  an  epistle  about  literature, 
with  only  an  incidental  element  of  mild  satire,  as  is  the  original.  The 
Hints  from  Horace,  therefore,  so  far  from  being  really  Horatian  in 
tone,  rather  serves  to  accentuate  Byron's  lack  of  sympathy  with 
Horace. 

That,  indeed,  there  was  a  lack  we  cannot  doubt.  Byron  knew 
Horace  widely,  but  superficially.  He  never  realized  the  true 
value  of  the  Roman  poet  in  the  world's  literature.  He  was  proud  of 
paraphrasing  the  Ars  Poetica,  because  he  considered  it  'the  most  diffi- 
cult poem  in  the  language' ; 2  but  he  looked  upon  it  rather  as  a  vehicle 
for  personal  satire  than  a  treatise  to  be  studied  and  followed.  And 
aside  from  it  and  an  indifferent  early  translation  of  part  of  the  famous 
ode  lustum  et  tenacem,  the  many  traces  of  Horace  found  in  his  poems 
are  nearly  all  chance  phrases,  quoted  either  in  Latin  or  in  English. 
They  are,  on  the  whole,  external  embellishments,  not  real  elements  of 
the  poet's  work;  in  perhaps  every  case  they  are  consciously  and  deliber- 
ately used.  We  cannot  refuse  to  believe  Byron  when  he  tells  us  that  he 
could  never  love  the  verse  of  Horace;  we  may  doubt  the  other  part  of 
the  statement — that  he  comprehended  it,  in  the  sense  in  which  he  uses 
the  word.  Yet,  as  I  have  tried  to  show,  we  are  mistaken  if  we  take  the 
'hated  so'  as  literal  and  abiding. 

If  we  should  attempt — and  the  attempt  has  been  made  —  to  di- 
Sh  11  v^e  ^nSusn  poets  into  two  classes,  calling  one  class 
Greeks,  and  the  other  Romans,  according  to  their  charac- 
teristics and  the  influences  to  which  they  have  responded,  we  should 
unhesitatingly  put  Byron  among  the  Romans;  and  just  as  unhesi- 
tatingly we  should  place  the  poet  whose  name  is  oftenest  asso- 

1  Life  of  Byron  2.  18. 

2  See  letter  to  R.  C.  Dallas,  September  4,  1811. 


40  The  Influence  of  Horace 

ciated  with  his  —  Shelley — with  the  Greeks.  Nor  should  we  make 
a  mistake  in  this :  Shelley's  work  is  decidedly  more  Greek  than  Latin, 
and  to  him  the  literature  and  ideals  of  Greece  meant  more  than 
those  of  any  other  nation.  'You  see  how  ill  I  follow  the  maxim  of 
Horace/  he  writes  to  Thomas  Love  Peacock  (January  26,  1819),  'at 
least  in  its  literal  sense:  nil  admirari  —  which  I  should  say,  prope  res 
est  una  —  to  prevent  there  ever  being  anything  admirable  in  the 
world.'  And  then  rashly,  'Fortunately  Plato  is  of  my  opinion;  and  I 
had  rather  err  with  Plato  than  be  right  with  Horace.'  And  in  the 
preface  to  Hellas  he  says: 

'We  are  all  Greeks.  Our  laws,  our  literature,  our  religion,  our  arts 
have  their  root  in  Greece.  But  for  Greece,  Rome,  the  instructor,  the 
conqueror,  or  the  metropolis  of  our  ancestors,  would  have  spread  no 
illumination  with  her  arms,  and  we  might  still  have  been  savages  and 
idolaters.' 

Yet  we  must  not  forget  that  Shelley  for  a  great  part,  if  not  all,  of  his 
life  knew  Latin  much  better  than  Greek,  and  that  his  early  training, 
like  that  of  all  Englishmen  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  his  day, 
placed  far  greater  emphasis  on  the  language  and  literature  of  the 
Romans.  We  are  told  that  early  in  his  married  life,  'whilst  reading 
Greek  classics  with  the  help  of  "cribs,"  he  [was]  teaching  Harriet 
Latin  so  as  to  give  her  a  general  notion  of  Horace's  Odes  and  Ovid's 
Metamorphoses.'1  And  though  he  later  became  so  expert  in  Greek  as 
to  make  many  fine  translations,  he  never  forgot  Latin  in  his  preference 
for  the  other  tongue.  He  writes  in  the  preface  to  The  Revolt  of  Islam : 
'The  poetry  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome  and  modern  Italy  and  our 
own  country  has  been  to  me,  like  external  nature,  a  passion  and  an 
enjoyment.' 

That  he  knew  Horace  well  there  is  abundant  evidence;  and  we  also 
learn  that  his  acquaintance  with  the  Roman  poet  was  not  confined  to 
his  school-days.  We  have  already  seen  that  he  read  the  Odes  with 
Harriet.  In  later  years  Horace  appears  in  the  list  of  books  which  were 
at  once  his  study  and  pleasure,  along  with  Aeschylus,  Aristophanes, 
Theocritus,  Xenophon,  Herodotus,  Lucian,  and  Virgil.2  It  is  true  that 
he  never  ranks  Horace  with  the  great  names  of  Greek  literature ;  in 
the  Defense  of  Poetry  he  says  that  'Horace,  Catullus,  Ovid,  and  gener- 
ally the  other  great  writers  of  the  Virgilian  age  saw  man  and  nature 

1  Jeaffreson,  The  Real  Shelley  2.  140. 

2  See  Dowden,  Life  of  Shelley  2.  215. 


Introduction  41 

in  the  mirror  of  Greece.'  Yet  that  he  does  give  him  a  high  place  in 
literature  is  implied  by  a  paragraph  in  the  preface  to  Prometheus  Un- 
bound: 

'Poets  .  .  .  are,  in  one  sense,  the  creators,  and,  in  another, 
the  creations,  of  their  age.  From  this  subjection  the  loftiest  do  not 
escape.  There  is  a  similarity  between  Homer  and  Hesiod,  between 
Aeschylus  and  Euripides,  between  Virgil  and  Horace,  between  Dante 
and  Petrarch,  between  Shakespeare  and  Fletcher,  between  Dryden  and 
Pope.' 

And  again,  in  the  Defense  of  Poetry : 

'Let  us  for  a  moment  stoop  to  the  arbitration  of  popular  breath, 
and  ...  let  us  decide  without  trial,  testimony,  or  form,  that 
certain  of  those  who  are  "there  sitting  where  we  dare  not  soar"  are 
reprehensible.  Let  us  assume  that  Homer  was  a  drunkard,  that  Virgil 
was  a  flatterer,  that  Horace  was  a  coward.  .  .  .  Posterity  has 
done  ample  justice  to  the  great  names  now  referred  to.' 

This  placing  of  Horace  among  the  greatest  men  in  literature  is  do- 
ing him  greater  justice  than  ever  came  from  Byron  or  Coleridge.  In- 
deed, it  was  inevitable  that  Shelley,  with  his  wonderful  lyric  gift, 
should  appreciate  the  felicity  of  expression,  the  melody  of  language 
and  cadence,  of  his  Roman  predecessor.  It  is  noteworthy  that  he 
always  considers  Horace  in  the  capacity  of  lyric  poet.  In  the  pre- 
face to  The  Revolt  of  Islam  he  says: 

Toetry  and  the  art  which  professes  to  regulate  and  limit  its  powers 
cannot  subsist  together.  Longinus  could  not  have  been  the  con- 
temporary of  Homer,  nor  Boileau  of  Horace.' 

He  here  deliberately  disregards  Horace  as  a  literary  critic,  although 
on  occasion  he  quotes  the  Ars  Poetica.  Most  of  his  citations,  however, 
are  from  the  Odes;  and  in  nearly  every  echo  of  Horace  other  than 
quotation  which  we  find  in  Shelley's  works  the  influence  comes  from 
the  lyric  poetry.  It  is  unnecessary  to  remark  that  to  such  echoes  we 
must  look  for  a  real  accord  between  two  poets.  Quotation  is  a 
more  or  less  artificial  thing;  we  all  quote  the  writers  with  whom  we 
happen  to  be  most  familiar,  rather  than  those  for  whom  we  care  most 
— though  often,  of  course,  the  two  classes  coincide.  But  when  one 
poet  incorporates  the  thoughts  or  expressions  of  another  into  his  own 
work,  making  them  a  part  of  himself,  so  to  speak,  we  may  be  sure  that 
the  two  possess  some  bond  of  fellowship. 

Now  this  is  just  what  Shelley  does,  to  a  limited  extent,  with  the 


42  The  Influence  of  Horace 

lyrics  of  Horace.  Fundamentally  the  two  men  were  very  different. 
Shelley  would  never,  after  fighting  on  the  side  of  Brutus  at  Philippi, 
have  settled  down  in  Rome  and  enjoyed  the  patronage  of  Augustus; 
Horace  would  never  have  attempted  to  excite  the  Irish  by  throwing 
handbills  out  of  the  windows  to  them.  Horace  was  naturally  an  Epi- 
curean; Shelley  was  steeped  in  Platonic  and  neo-Pla tonic  doctrines. 
But  since  both  were  lyric  poets,  Shelley  could  appreciate  Horace's  gift 
of  expression.  He  probably  could  not  appreciate  it  so  fully  as  could  a 
more  careful  artist  like  Tennyson;  but  his  poetic  feeling  showed  him 
something  of  its  beauty,  and  to  that  extent  he  was  influenced  by 
Horace  more  truly  than  was  the  case  with  Byron. 

The  traces  of  Horace  in  the  works  of  Keats  are  so  slight  as  to  be 
,.  virtually  negligible.  In  the  entire  body  of  his  poetry  I  have 

been  able  to  find  no  certain  proof  of  an  acquaintance  with 
the  Roman  poet;  and  the  two  or  three  chance  phrases  in  his  letters 
might  have  been  picked  up  from  various  sources.  Fortunately  there 
is  a  sentence  from  a  letter  to  John  Hamilton  Reynolds  (February,  1820) 
which  proves  that  Keats  had  read  for  himself  at  least  a  part  of  Horace :. 

'If  I  were  well  enough,  I  would  paraphrase  an  ode  of  Horace's  for 
you,  on  your  embarking  in  the  seventy  years  ago  style.  The  packet 
will  bear  a  comparison  with  a  Roman  galley,  at  any  rate.' 

This  paraphrase  of  Horace's  proempticon  was  probably  never  made; 
but  the  reference  to  the  ode  (1.  3)  shows  that  Keats  knew  it.  Whether 
he,  like  most  of  the  other  poets  included  in  the  present  study,  made  his 
first  acquaintance  with  Horace  in  his  school-days  is  doubtful,  for  his 
early  education  was  not  thorough.  It  is  probable  that  he  never 
read  Latin  with  much  ease.  'When  I  have  done  this  language  [Italian] 
so  as  to  be  able  to  read  it  tolerably  well,'  he  writes  to  his  brother  George 
in  September,  1819,  'I  shall  set  myself  to  get  complete  in  Latin,  and 
there  my  learning  must  stop.  ...  I  would  not  go  so  far  if  I  were 
not  persuaded  of  the  power  the  language  gives  me.'  It  was  his  life 
which  stopped  rather  than  his  learning,  and  he  probably  was  unable  to 
carry  out  his  intention  of  'getting  complete'  in  Latin.  Yet  among  the 
books  that  he  left  was  a  copy  of  Auctores  Mythographi  Latini  which 
showed  signs  of  having  been  used — and  in  one  place,  at  least,  misunder- 
stood.1 

But  we  cannot  ascribe  Keats'  freedom  from  Horatian  influence 
altogether  to  his  incomplete  knowledge  of  Latin;  for,  although  he 

1  Starick,  Die  Belesenheit  von  John  Reals,  p.  70. 


Introduction  43 

knew  no  Greek  at  all,  his  work  was  greatly  influenced  by  translations 
from  that  language.  As  truly  as  Shelley,  though  in  a  different  way, 
he  was  a  'Greek';  perhaps  this  is  one  reason  why  Latin  literature 
did  not  especially  attract  him.  'I  have  loved  the  principle  of  beauty 
in  all  things,'  he  wrote  to  Fanny  Brawne  —  a  sentence  which  mani- 
fests the  Hellenic  spirit  as  we  now  regard  it.  vlt  is  the  principle  on 
which  all  his  best  poetry  is  founded,  and  it  is  not  distinctively  Ro- 
man. 

Then,  too,  Keats  consciously  endeavored  to  avoid  foreign  influence. 
To  his  brother  George  he  wrote  (September,  1819): 

'I  shall  never  become  attached  to  a  foreign  idiom  so  as  to  put  it 
into  my  writings.  The  Paradise  Lost,  though  so  fine  in  itself,  is  a  cor- 
ruption of  our  language.  .  .  .  Miltonic  verse  cannot  be  written,  but 
is  the  verse  of  art.  I  wish  to  devote  myself  to  another  verse  alone.' 

It  is  idle  to  speculate  whether  Keats  would  have  outgrown  these 
youthful  notions  —  whether  he  would  really  have  perfected  himself 
in  Latin,  and  thus  have  come  to  a  fuller  appreciation  of  the  worth 
of  its  literature.  The  time  he  longed  for  was  denied  him;  he  died, 
leaving  work  of  great  value  and  of  still  greater  promise. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  Keats'  knowledge  of  Latin  was  probably 
insufficient  to  let  him  appreciate  the  quality  in  Horace  that  attracted 
Shelley  —  beautiful  diction  and  rhythm;  and  that,  for  the  rest,  Keats 
was  too  remote  in  temperament  from  the  other  to  enjoy  him  greatly. 
The  things  he  cared  for  were  not  those  for  which  Horace  cared ;  hence 
we  find  no  Horatian  element  in  his  poetry. 

In  1850,  when  Wordsworth  died,  the  last  as  well  as  the  first  of 
~  that  generation  of  poets,  the  office  of  Poet  Laureate 

was  conferred  upon  Tennyson;  and  by  an  interesting 
coincidence,  the  second  Laureate  among  our  seven  poets  stands  im- 
mediately after  the  first  in  point  of  the  influence  exerted  upon  him 
by  Horace. 

There  are  several  reasons  for  this.  In  the  first  place,  Tennyson 
received  the  customary  classical  education  of  the  sons  of  English 
gentlemen,  but,  unlike  many  boys  so  educated,  responded  well  to  it, 
so  that  his  works  show  a  wide  knowledge  of  all  the  great  Latin  poets. 
It  is  significant  that  the  author  in  whom  he  was  most  thoroughly 
grounded  in  his  boyhood  was  Horace.  Then,  too,  among  all  English 
writers  none  is  more  careful  in  the  use  of  his  medium  than  Tennyson. 
He  worked  over  his  verses  with  the  care  of  a  scholar  joined  to  the  sen- 


44  The  Influence  of  Horace 

sibility  of  an  artist,  always  striving  for  felicity  of  expression  and 
beauty  of  diction;  he  suppressed  poems  when  he  came  to  feel  that  they 
did  not  do  him  justice,  until  one  can  hardly  make  sure  that  one  has 
studied  the  entire  body  even  of  his  published  work.  It  was  inevit- 
able that  so  painstaking  a  workman  should  admire  the  skill  of  the 
greatest  Latin  master  of  poetical  technique;  indeed,  we  shall  find  him 
frequently  expressing  his  admiration  for  the  art  of  Horace.  Further- 
more, the  two  poets  have  many  characteristics  in  common.  Though 
Tennyson's  philosophy  of  life  is  loftier  than  that  of  Horace,  he,  too, 
believes  in  moderation  and  simplicity.  He,  too,  loved  external  na- 
ture—  not,  as  did  Keats,  for  its  sheer  sensuous  beauty,  nor  as  did 
Shelley,  for  the  spirit  which  he  felt  to  be  incorporated  in  it,  but 
rather  as  did  Horace,  and,  usually,  Wordsworth  —  for  the  calm  com- 
fort and  enjoyment  which  he  received  from  it.  And  he,  too,  shows 
in  his  poetry  a  vein  of  melancholy,  which  is  not  relieved,  however, 
by  so  genial  a  strain  of  humor  as  is  the  Roman  poet's. 

Tennyson's  first  acquaintance  with  Horace  did  not  promise  any 
great  future  liking.  'My  father,'  writes  Hallam  Tennyson,  'said 
that  he  himself  received  a  good  but  not  a  regular  classical  education. 
At  any  rate  he  became  an  accurate  scholar,  the  author  "thoroughly 
drummed"  into  him  being  Horace;  whom  he  disliked  in  proportion. 
He  would  lament:  "They  use  me  as  a  lesson-book  at  schools,  and  they 
will  call  me  'that  horrible  Tennyson.'  It  was  not  till  many  years  after 
boyhood  that  I  could  like  Horace.  Byron  expressed  what  I  felt: 
'Then  farewell,  Horace,  whom  I  hated  so.'  Indeed  I  was  so  overdosed 
with  Horace  that  I  hardly  do  him  justice  even  now  that  I  am 
old.'"1 

If  it  was  an  overdose,  it  nevertheless  was  productive  of  good 
results,  as  the  event  showed.  Had  we  only  this  single  expression  from 
Tennyson  about  Horace,  we  should  know  that  he  came  to  appreciate 
the  Latin  poet.  For  a  man's  words,  which  are  but  the  record  of  pass- 
ing moods,  are  not  of  so  much  account  as  his  actions;  and  no  student  of 
Horace  can  read  Tennyson  without  realizing  that  the  later  poet 
cared  much  for  the  earlier. 

That  his  fondness,  however,  came  comparatively  late  in  life  is 
again  made  clear  by  his  son,  who  quotes  the  poet  as  saying: 

'  "X —  has  said  that  Tennyson  told  him  that  Horace  and  Keats 
were  his  two  masters.  X —  must  have  misunderstood,"  '  and  adds: 
'He  did  not  care  for  Horace  at  all  until  after  he  was  thirty.  He  had 

1  Hallam  Tennyson,  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  1.  16. 


Introduction  45 

said  "Horace  and  Keats  are  masters."  ?1 

William  Allingham  corroborates  this.  He  tells  us  that  Tennyson 
said  to  him:  'I  never  appreciated  Horace  until  I  was  forty.' 2 

There  is  abundant  evidence  of  Tennyson's  admiration  of  some  of 
Horace's  metres.  Palgrave,  in  his  recollections  of  Tennyson,  records 
that  'he  [was]  deeply  moved  by  the  Roman  digru'ty  which  Horace  has 
imparted  to  the  Sapphic  in  the  Non  enim  gazae;  .  .  .  although,' 
he  adds,  'in  general  Tennyson  did  not  admire  the  Horatian  treatment 
of  that  metre,  which  he  would  audaciously  define,  alluding  to  the 
Adonic  fourth  line,  as  "like  a  pig  with  its  tail  tightly  curled. "  ' 3 

But  for  the  Alcaics  of  Horace  he  has  only  praise.  In  his  own  note 
to  The  Daisy  he  says:  'In  a  metre  which  I  invented,  representing 
in  some  measure  the  grandest  of  metres,  the  Horatian  Alcaic.'  His 
son  also  refers  to  this :  'He  was  proud  of  the  metre  of  The  Daisy,  which 
he  called  a  far-off  echo  of  the  Horatian  Alcaic.' 4 

The  poet  makes  the  following  note  to  his  own  Alcaics: 

'My  Alcaics  are  not  intended  for  Horatian  Alcaics,  nor  are  Horace's 
Alcaics  the  Greek  Alcaics,  nor  are  his  Sapphics,  which  are  vastly 
inferior  to  Sappho's,  the  Greek  Sapphics.  The  Horatian  Alcaic  is 
perhaps  the  stateliest  metre  in  the  world  except  the  Virgilian  hexa- 
meter at  its  best.  ...  I  did  once  begin  an  Horatian  Alcaic  Ode  to 
a  great  painter,  of  which  I  only  recollect  one  line: 
Munificently  rewarded  Artist.' 

Hallam  Tennyson,  in  his  journal  for  March  17,  1890,  writes  of  his 
father: 

'He  had  all  but  recovered  from  his  influenza,  and  sat  in  the  sun  in 
front  of  the  study  window,  and  read  Jebb's  Homer;  quoted  Virtus 
repulsae  nescia  sordidae,  and  dwelt  on  the  stateliness  imparted  by 
Horace  to  the  Alcaic  stanza.'5 

This  quoting  from  Horace  in  conversation  would  seem  to  have  been 
no  infrequent  thing.  For  instance,  Hallam  Tennyson  notes  (April  10, 
1892): 

'My  father  and  Warren  walked  in  the  ball-room.     My  father 

1  Hallam  Tennyson,  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  2.  386. 

2  Allingham  and  Radford,  William  Allingham:  a  Diary,  p.  350. 

3  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  2.  500. 

4  Ibid.  2.  341. 
6  Ibid.  2.  377 


46  The  Influence  of  Horace 

quoted  the  line  of  Horace, 

Nee  satis  est  pulchra  esse  poemata,  dulcia  sunto, 
and  asked  Warren  to  explain  it.' 1 

It  is  evident  that  Tennyson's  early  and  thorough  grounding  in 
Horace  did  not  give  him,  in  his  own  opinion,  a  sufficient  knowledge 
to  last  through  life;  for  Hallam  Tennyson  says,  in  describing  the 
journey  to  Italy  in  1851: 

'He  took  with  him  his  usual  traveling  companions,  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  Homer,  Virgil,  Horace,  Pindar,  Theocritus,  and  probably  the 
Divina  Commedia  and  Goethe's  GedichteJ  2 

Truly  an  illustrious  group  of  travelers!  It  is  pleasant  to  fancy 
Tennyson  reading  Horace  on  the  soil  of  that  Italy  dearer  to  the  Latin 
poet  than 

claram  Rhodon  aut  Mytilenen 
Aut  Epheson  bimarisve  Corinthi 
Moenia  vel  Baccho  Thebas  vel  Apolline  Delphos 
Insignis  aut  Thessala  Tempe.3 

Nor  did  Tennyson's  early  training  cause  him  to  refrain  from  teach- 
ing Horace  to  his  own  sons  while  they  were  children.  '  The  first  Latin 
I  learnt  from  him,'  writes  his  son  Hallam,  'was  Horace's  Ofons  Bandu- 
siae.'  4 

There  are  other  witnesses  to  Tennyson's  admiration  for  Horace. 
Allingham  says  that  Tennyson  remarked  to  him:  'Catullus,  Horace, 
and  the  others  gave  only  their  best.' 5 

In  Palgrave's  personal  recollections  of  Tennyson  we  read:  'Much 
as  he  loved  Horace,  he  rose  above  the  epigrammatic  narrowness  of  his 
brilliant  Non  di,  non  homines.' 6 

And  Palgrave  records  another  allusion  to  Horace  by  the  poet: 

'  "The  poet's  work  is  his  life,  and  no  one  has  a  right  to  ask  for 
more,"  he  would  always  say;  reaching  once  even  the  barbarity,  as  I 
could  not  help  calling  it,  that  if  Horace  had  left  an  autobiography,  and 
the  single  manuscript  were  in  his  hands,  he  would  throw  it  into  the 
fire.' 7 

I  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  2.  403. 
*Ibid.  1.341. 

3  Far-famed  Rhodes,  or  Mytilene,  or  Ephesus,  or  the  walls  of  Corinth  with  its  two  seas,  or  Thebes 
renowned  for  Bacchus,  or  Delphi  for  Apollo,  or  Thessalian  Tempe.     (Cam.  1.  7.  1-4.) 

4  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  1.  370. 

6  Allingham  and  Radford,  William  Allingham:  a  Diary,  p.  294. 
'Hallam  Tennyson,  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  2.  506. 

II  Ibid.  2.  484. 


Introduction  47 

This,  let  us  observe,  is  different  from  the  well-known  attitude  of 
Browning.  The  latter  discountenances  any  expectation  by  the  pub- 
lic that  a  poet  will  reveal  his  own  personality  through  his  works; 
Tennyson's  objection  is  to  inquiries  about  the  poet  outside  of  his 
works.  But  that  his  objection  was  not  absolute  is  proved  by  his  hav- 
ing consented  to  the  writing  of  his  memoir  by  his  son. 

We  must  now  observe  an  utterance  of  Tennyson  which  would  seem 
at  first  thought  to  be  in  opposition  to  an  inquiry  like  the  present.  The 
poet  says,  in  his  introductory  notes  to  The  Princess: 

'There  is,  I  fear,  a  prosaic  set  growing  up  among  us,  editors  of 
booklets,  book-worms,  index-hunters,  or  men  of  great  memories  and 
no  imagination,  who  impute  themselves  to  the  poet,  and  so  believe  that 
he,  too,  has  no  imagination,  but  is  for  ever  poking  his  nose  between  the 
pages  of  some  old  volume  in  order  to  see  what  he  can  appropriate. 
They  will  not  allow  one  .  .  .  even  to  use  such  a  simple  expression 
as  the  ocean  "roars, "  without  finding  out  the  precise  verse  in  Homer  or 
Horace  from  which  we  have  plagiarized  it.' 

The  same  example  is  given  by  Hallam  Tennyson: 

'He  himself  had  been  "most  absurdly  accused  of  plagiarizing," 
e.g.,  "The  moanings  of  the  homeless  sea,"  "meanings"  from  Horace, 
"homeless"  from  Shelley.  "As  if  no  one  else  had  heard  the  sea  moan 
except  Horace. "  J1 

Evidently  this  particular  charge  had  made  an  unpleasant  impres- 
sion on  Tennyson.  Yet  that  his  objection  would  have  extended  to  a 
study  such  as  the  present  I  cannot  believe.  Indeed,  he  himself  leans 
to  the  contrary  position  when  he  says,  a  few  lines  above  the  passage 
first  quoted: 

'Far  indeed  am  I  from  asserting  that  books  as  well  as  Nature  are 
not,  and  ought  not  to  be,  suggestive  to  the  poet.  I  am  sure  that  I 
myself,  and  many  others,  find  a  peculiar  charm  in  those  passages  of 
such  great  masters  as  Virgil  or  Milton  where  they  adopt  the  creation  of 
a  bygone  poet,  and  reclothe  it,  more  or  less,  according  to  their  own 
fancy.' 

Now  with  just  such  instances  as  these  the  present  study  aims  to 
deal.  It  was  not  undertaken  with  the  purpose  of  picking  out  trivial 
chance  resemblances  between  Horace  and  other  poets,  in  order  to 
substantiate  a  charge  of  plagiarism;  the  purpose  is  rather  to  find  the 
'reckonings'  of  which  Tennyson  speaks,  and  from  them  to  infer  the 

1  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  2.  385. 


48  The  Influence  of  Horace 

influence  of  Horace  upon  a  great  epoch  of  English  poetry.  'My  para- 
phrases of  certain  Latin  and  Greek  lines  seem  too  obvious  to  be  men- 
tioned,' says  Tennyson  in  the  brief  prefatory  notes  to  his  collected 
works.  No  one  would  accuse  him  of  plagiarism  on  account  of  such 
paraphrases;  yet  from  them  can  be  gleaned  material  of  value  about  his 
tastes  in  literature.  According  to  his  own  statement,  a  poet  should  be 
known  by  his  works. 

Such  characteristics  as  Horace  and  Tennyson  have  in  common 
have  frequently  been  noticed  by  others.  C.  S.  Calverley l  calls  atten- 
tion to  one  group : 

'Between  Horace,  especially,  and  the  modern  poet  there  exist,  we 
think,  in  point  of  style  and  workmanship,  many  similarities.  A 
stanza  of  In  Memoriam  is  a  thing  compact,  teres  atque  rotundus,  as  is  a 
stanza  in  a  Horatian  ode.  Both  writers  are  equally  intolerant  of  any 
but  the  right  word,  and  both  have  the  gift  of  making  it  fit  into  its  place 
apparently  by  a  happy  accident.  The  condensed  phraseology,  the 
abruptness,  the  ease  (attained  probably  per  laborem  plurimum,  until 
art  became  a  second  nature)  which  characterize  the  Odes  of  Horace 
characterize  the  cantos,  so  to  call  them,  of  In  Memoriam.  Even 
Mr.  Tennyson's  compound  epithets  are  paralleled,  and  more  than 
paralleled,  in  Horace.' 

To  turn  from  similarities  of  technique  to  similarities  of  tempera- 
ment, we  find  Andrew  Lang2  saying  of  Tennyson:  'He  constantly 
reminds  us  of  Virgil,  Homer,  Theocritus,  and  even  Persius  and 
Horace.' 

And  though  the  coupling  of  Horace  with  Persius  would  indicate 
that  Lang  had  Horace  the  satirist  in  mind,  the  truth  is  that  Tennyson 
even  more  often  reminds  us  of  Horace  the  lyrist.  As  Palgrave, 
says:3 

'It  was,  indeed,  more  than  most  poets  that  Tennyson  (as  justly  has 
been  remarked  about  Horace)  felt  the  two  impulses  described  by 
M.  Arnold,  one  driving  the  poet  "to  the  world  without"  and  "one  to 
solitude";  although  the  happier  circumstances  of  Tennyson's  life 
allowed  him  less  of  Rome  and  more  of  Tibur  and  the  Sabine  farm  than 
fell  to  the  lot  of  the  great  Italian.' 

But  more  convincing  than  any  of  these  statements,  I  venture  to 

1  Works,  London,  1901,  pp.  508-509. 

2  Alfred  Tennyson  (Modern  English  Writers),  p.  223. 

8  See  Hallam  Tennyson,  Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  2.  489. 


Introduction  49 

hope,  will  be  an  examination  of  the  actual  resemblances  found  be- 
tween the  poetry  of  Horace  and  that  of  Tennyson,  since  they  are  so 
many,  and  so  much  a  part  of  the  latter's  work. 

Browning,  the  son  of  cultivated  and  talented  parents,  had  every 
_  .  opportunity  to  form  an  early  acquaintance  with  Horace. 
His  father,  we  are  told,  'knew  by  "heart  ...  all  the 
Odes  of  Horace,' l  and  he  could  hardly  have  failed  to  make  his  son  fa- 
miliar with  a  favorite  author.  When  the  poet  was  twelve  years  old, 
his  uncle,  Reuben  Browning,  presented  him  with  Christopher  Smart's 
translation  of  Horace2 — a  version  which,  though  not  always  felici- 
tous, has  the  advantage  of  being  in  prose,  and  is  fairly  accurate. 
Browning  may  have  been  thinking  of  this  gift  when,  more  than  sixty 
years  later,  in  his  Parleying*  with  Certain  People  of  Importance  (Par- 
leying with  Christopher  Smart),  he  mentioned  as  an  'unsightly 
bough' :  Smart's  who  translated  Horace. 

But  it  is  unlikely  that  the  poet  did  not  know  something  of 
Horace  long  before  he  was  twelve  —  and  that,  too,  in  no  trans- 
lation, but  in  the  original  Latin.  His  biographer,  William  Sharp, 
says  (though  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  other  authority  for  the 
statement)  that  Browning  at  the  age  of  eight  'began  to  translate  the 
simpler  odes  of  Horace.'3  These  early  translations,  as  well  as  the 
Horatian  ode  which  Sharp  in  the  same  paragraph  tells  us  the  ten-year- 
old  Browning  wrote  in  honor  of  his  first  sweetheart,  have  disappeared, 
with  the  rest  of  the  poet's  juvenile  efforts.  The  only  translation  of 
any  considerable  portion  of  Horace  found  in  Browning's  extant  works 
(the  version  of  part  of  Carm.  1.  3  in  Fifine  at  the  Fair)  is  literal  and 
accurate. 

For  better  evidence  of  Browning's  knowledge  of  Horace  we  turn  to 
his  own  poetry,  where  on  occasion  he  quotes  the  Roman  with  a 
fluency  and  readiness  equalled  by  few.  We  are  almost  inclined  to 
attribute  to  him  his  father's  extraordinary  acquaintance  with  our  poet, 
so  easily  do  the  phrases  come  to  him — and  phrases  not  always  the  most 
familiar.  Yet  mark  that  it  is  'on  occasion.'  In  large  proportion,  the 
numerous  citations  from  Horace  in  Browning's  poems  are  found  in  the 
ninth  and  tenth  books  of  The  Ring  and  the  Book4"  —  comprising  the 

1  Mrs.  Sutherland  Orr,  Robert  Browning  1.  16. 

2  Griffin  and  Minchin,  Life  of  Robert  Browning,  p.  6. 

3  Life  of  Robert  Browning,  p.  26. 

4  Lest  it  should  be  thought  that  the  quotations  from  Horace  occur  in  Browning's  original,  I  may 
note  here  that  I  have  examined  The  Old  Yellow  Book,  and  find  no  trace  of  Horace  in  the  lawyers'  papers. 


50  The  Influence  of  Horace 

briefs  of  the  two  advocates.  The  poet,  able  to  quote  to  an  unlimited 
extent  when  he  so  desires,  is  equally  able  to  suppress  any  trace  of 
Horace  for  hundreds  of  pages. 

There  is  an  explanation  for  this.  Browning  is  one  of  those  authors 
who  are  little  given  to  self -revelation;  he  disapproves  of  a  poet's  'un- 
locking his  heart'  to  a  curious  world — 'if  so,  the  less  Shakespeare 
he!'  As  for  himself,  he  seldom  speaks  in  propria  persona  in  his 
poems.  In  fact,  although  Browning's  finest  work  is  not  found  in  his 
plays,  his  genius  is  essentially  dramatic  so  far  as  regards  treatment  of 
character.  The  poet  has  the  faculty  of  altogether  identifying  himself, 
Robert  Browning,  with  Fra  Lippo  Lippi,  or  with  the  duke  who  exhibits 
his  dead  wife's  picture,  or  with  the  dying  bishop.  We  do  not  even  know 
the  names  of  many  of  his  personages;  but  we  do  know  the  persons, 
and  the  workings  of  their  minds  and  souls,  as  we  do  not  know  their 
creator.  Generalities,  of  course,  we  can  determine;  as  the  fact  that 
Browning  was  more  interested  in  the  inner  nature  of  human  beings 
than  in  anything  else  in  the  universe.  But  what  were  his  own 
thoughts  and  feelings  about  many  subjects  on  which  he  writes  must 
remain  a  blank  to  us.  So  it  is  that  when  he  is  impersonating 
Dominus  Hyacinthus  de  Archangelis,  or  Juris  Doctor  Johannes- 
Baptista  Bottinius,  he  quotes  a  great  deal  of  Horace  because  it  seems 
appropriate  that  these  advocates  steeped  in  Latin  should  be  for  ever 
showing  their  classical  erudition;  whereas,  when  he  turns  to  other 
characters,  he  endows  them  with  other  knowledge,  or  with  none  at 
all,  to  suit  his  purpose. 

We  must  allow,  then,  that  the  large  amount  of  Horace  found  in 
Browning  is  for  the  most  part  not  a  characteristic  element  in  his 
work.  Indeed,  Browning  was  really  little  influenced  by  any  one. 
Sources  he  often  had  and  used,  of  course;  but  of  genuine  influence  upon 
his  poetry,  such  as  that  of  Milton  upon  Wordsworth,  or  of  Spenser 
upon  Keats,  there  is  almost  none.  Browning — though  it  may  sound 
rather  paradoxical  after  all  that  has  been  said — is  emphatically  him- 
self; rarely  can  a  line  of  his  poetry  be  mistaken  for  the  work  of  any 
one  else.  In  his  letters,  where,  if  anywhere,  we  look  for  the  real 
Robert  Browning,  he  seldom  quotes;  it  is  as  if  he  had  so  much  of  his 
own  to  say  that  what  others  have  said  does  not  occur  to  him.  The 
same  reason  explains  the  rapidity  with  which  he  wrote — a  rapidity 
which  sometimes  lends  support  to  the  charge  of  obscurity,  and  which 
certainly  is  foreign  to  Horace.  Unlike  Horace,  too,  are  the  self -conceal- 
ment which  we  have  noticed,  and  the  buoyant  optimism  which  recurs 


Introduction  51 

so  constantly  that  we  can  safely  point  to  it  as  one  of  Browning's 
characteristics.  Though  at  first  thought  we  might  say  the  two  poets 
were  alike  in  their  deep  interest  in  human  nature,  we  soon  see  that 
even  here  their  attitudes  are  different:  Horace  is  interested  in  what  he 
sees  the  men  about  him  doing;  Browning  cares  for  their  deeds  only  in 
so  far  as  they  reveal  their  thoughts  and  help  him  to  understand  their 
souls.  With  him,  in  very  truth,  '  'tis  not  what  man  does  that  exalts 
him,  but  what  man  would  do.' 

With  Browning  we  reach  the  last  of  the  great  English  poets  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Many  lesser  singers  there  were,  but  none  who 
could  rank  with  the  seven  here  discussed.  Nor  are  these  all  of  equal 
merit;  yet  each  plays  a  considerable  part  in  the  literature  of  his  coun- 
try, and  for  the  present,  at  least,  demands  our  attention.  No  one  can 
predict  what  the  judgment  of  succeeding  ages  may  be.  Horace's 
place  in  the  world's  culture  is  secure;  but  these  others  'abide  our  ques- 
tion.' Not  all  of  them,  as  we  have  seen,  cared  for  Horace  or  under- 
stood him;  but  all  knew  him,  and  almost  all  used  him.  His  many- 
sidedness,  which  after  all  is  his  chief  claim  to  distinction,  makes  it 
virtually  impossible  for  any  one  person  to  appreciate  him  fully.  Yet 
it  also  gives  nearly  every  one  something  in  common  with  him,  and 
ensures  the  permanence  of  his  fame,  which  has  indeed  been  aere  peren- 
nius. 

The  following  pages  record  the  resemblances  I  have  found  between 

Horace  and  the  seven  poets.  In  making  this 
Details  concern-  ,  T  ,  .  ,  , 

ing  this  Study        record  I  have,  except  in  cases  where  there  are 

other  obvious  traces,  disregarded  such  common- 
places as  'the  golden  mean,'  'the  man  of  fixed  and  virtuous  will,'  the 
immortality  conferred  by  poetry,  and  so  on,  since  these  have  been  so 
often  used  as  to  be  no  longer  the  property  of  Horace,  but  of  the 
world.  I  have  also  refrained  from  citing  chance  Horace-like  phrases  in 
the  prose  of  Byron  and  Coleridge;  these  two  were  so  prone  to  scatter 
fragments  of  Latin  —  often  only  a  word  or  two  —  throughout  their 
writings  that  we  cannot  justly  ascribe  every  such  occurrence  to  the  in- 
fluence of  a  particular  Latin  author.  The  habit  merely  shows  a  fa- 
cile memory  providing  a  familiar  catchword.  All  the  important  cita- 
tions in  their  prose  I  have  noted;  and,  of  course,  every  one,  no  matter 
how  slight,  in  their  poetry.  Finally,  I  have  normalized  the  spelling 
and  punctuation  of  all  quotations  throughout  the  thesis,  except  where 
the  poets  themselves  quote  Horace  inexactly;  in  all  such  cases  I  have 
noted  the  deviation  from  the  accepted  text. 


WILLIAM  WORDSWORTH 

/.     Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  Motto  of  Ode  (1814): 

Carmina  possumus 
Donare,  et  pretium  dicere  muneri. 
Non  incisa  notis  marmora  publicis, 
Per  quae  spiritus  et  vita  redit  bonis 

Post  mortem  ducibus 

clarius  indicant 

Laudes  quam    .     .     .    Pierides;  neque 
Si  chartae  sileant  quod  bene  feceris 
Mercedem  tuleris. 

(Cam.  4.  8.  11  ff.) 
(For  muneri  read  muneris.) 

(2)  Compare  with  this  passage  from  Horace  the  following  lines 
(100  ff.)  from  Wordsworth's  Ode  (1814): 

And  be  the  guardian  spaces 

Of  consecrated  places 

As  nobly  graced  by  Sculpture's  patient  toil; 
And  let  imperishable  Columns  rise 
Fixed  in  the  depths  of  this  courageous  soil; 
Expressive  signals  of  a  glorious  strife, 
And  competent  to  shed  a  spark  divine 
Into  the  torpid  breast  of  daily  life. 


And  ye,  Pierian  Sisters, 

Chanting  for  patriot  heroes  the  reward 
Of  never-dying  song! 

So  shall  the  characters  of  that  proud  page 
Support  their  mighty  theme  from  age  to  age; 
And,  in  the  desert  places  of  the  earth, 
When  they  to  future  empires  have  given  birth, 
So  shall  the  people  gather  and  believe 
The  bold  report,  transferred  to  every  clime. 

(3)    Motto  of  the  sonnet  beginning,  'The  feudal  Keep,  the  bastions 
of  Cohorn': 

Dignum  laude  virum  Musa  vetat  mori. 

See  Carm.  4.  8.  28. 


54  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(4)  Footnote  to  Plea  for  the  Historian,  which  ends  with  the  lines : 

And  taught  her  [Clio's]  faithful  servants  how  the  lyre 
Should  animate,  but  not  mislead,  the  pen: 

Quern  virum     ....    lyra     .     .     .    ,* 
somes  [sic]  celebrare,  Clio? 

See  Carm.  1.12.  1-2.     (For  sumes  read  sumis.) 

(5)  From  the  sonnet  beginning,  'Young  England — what  is  then 
become  of  Old,' 11.  10-11: 

An  imitative  race, 
The  servum  pecus  of  a  Gallic  breed. 

See  Epist.  1.  19.  19:  o  imitator  es,  servum  pecus. 

(6)  Footnote  to  a  sentence  in  the  Guide  through  the  Lake  District 
(the  sentence  reads:  'Sufficient  specimens  remain  to  give  a  high  grati- 
fication to  the  man  of  genuine  taste.') : 

'Written  some  time  ago.  The  injury  done  since  is  more  than 
could  have  been  calculated  upon.  Singula  de  nobis  anni  praedantur 
euntes.' 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  55. 

(7)  Motto  of  the  prose  tractate  entitled  Concerning  the  Relations 
of  Great  Britain,  Spain,  and  Portugal  to  Each  Other  and  to  the  Common 
Enemy  at  this  Crisis]  and  Specifically  as  Affected  by  the  Convention  of 
Cintra: 

Qui  didicit  patriae  quid  debeat,     .     .     . 

Quod  sit  conscripti,  quod  iudicis  officium,  quae 

Partes  in  bellum  missi  ducis. 

See  Ars  Poet.  312  tt. 

(8)  From  the  preface  to  the  edition  of  the  poems  published  in 
1815: 

'  "So  seemed,"  and  to  whom  seemed?    To  the  heavenly  Muse 
who  dictates  the  poem,  to  the  eye  of  the  Poet's  mind,  and  to  that  of  the 
reader,  present  at  one  moment  in  the  wide  Ethiopian,  and  the  next  in 
the  solitudes,  then  first  broken  in  upon,  of  the  infernal  regions! 
Modo  me  Thebis,  modo  ponit  Athenis.' 

See  Epist.  2.  1.  213. 

(9)  From  a  letter  to  William  Mathews,  June,  1791: 

'I  quitted  London  about  three  weeks  ago,  where  my  time  passed  in 
a  strange  manner;  sometimes  whirled  about  by  the  vortex  of  its  strenua 
inertia.' 

See  Epist.  1.  11.  28:  strenua  nos  eocercet  inertia. 


William  Wordsworth  55 

(10)  From  a  letter  to  the  same,  March,  1796: 

'These  [Juvenal,  Horace,  Boileau,  Pope,  "the  redoubted  Peter"] 
are  great  names,  but  to  myself  I  shall  apply  the  passage  of  Horace, 
changing  the  bee  into  a  wasp  to  suit  the  subject. 
Ego  apis  Matinae 
More  modoque, 

etc.,  etc.' 
See  Carm.  4.  2.  27-28. 

(11)  From  a  letter  to  John  Scott,  March,   1816  (referring  to 
Brougham) : 

'Our  last  interview  was  terminated  among  the  majestic  woods  of 
Lowther,  near  his  own  beautiful  residence.  Thither  I  would  gladly 
remit  him  inter  silvas  Academi  quaerere  verum.' 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  45. 

(12)  From  a  letter  to  the  same,  April,  1816: 

'What  a  difference  between  the  amabilis  insania  of  inspiration, 
and  the  fiend-like  exasperation  of  these  wretched  productions.' 

See  Carm.  3.  4.  5-6. 

(13)  From  a  letter  to  R.  P.  Gillies,  April,  1816: 

'Do  not  let  anybody  persuade  you  that  any  quantity  of  good  verses 
can  be  produced  by  mere  felicity;  or  that  an  immortal  style  can  be  the 
growth  of  mere  genius.  M ulta  tulit  fecitque  must  be  the  motto  of  all 
those  who  are  to  last.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  413. 

(14)  From  a  letter  to  Lord  Lonsdale,  February,  1819  (discussing 
Wordsworth's  translation  of  a  passage  from  the  Aeneid): 

'These  two  lines  will  be  deemed,  I  apprehend,  hard  and  bald.  So 
true  is  Horace's  remark,  in  vitium  ducet  [sic]  culpae  fuga,  etc.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  31.     (For  ducet  read  ducit.) 

(15)  From  a  letter  to  Barron  Field,  October,  1828: 

'The  word  "rebounds"  I  wish  much  to  introduce  here  [in  the  poem 
beginning,  "Yes,  it  was  the  mountain  Echo"];  for  the  imaginative 
warning  turns  upon  the  echo,  which  ought  to  be  revived  as  near  the 
conclusion  as  possible.  This  rule  of  art  holds  equally  good  as  to  the 
theme  of  a  piece  of  music,  as  in  a  poem. 

Prima  dicte  mini  summa  dicende  Camaena  [sic]. 

(Epist.  1.  1.  1.)' 
(For  Camaena  read  Camena.) 

(16)  From  a  letter  to  John  Peace,  January,  1841  (speaking  of  'the 
inextinguishable  love  of  the  country  as  manifested  by  the  inhabitants 


56  The  Influence  of  Horace 

of  cities  in  their  culture  of  plants  and  flowers') : 

'The  germ  of  the  main  thought  is  to  be  found  in  Horace: 
Nempe  inter  varias  nutritur  silva  columnas, 
Laudaturque  domus  longos  quae  prospicit  agros. 
Naturam  expellas  furca,  tamen  usque  recurret. 
(Epist.  1.  10.  22-24.)' 

(17)  From  a  letter  to  Henry  Reed,  August,  1841 : 

'Our  two  present  Philosophes  [Emerson  and  Carlyle],  who  have 
taken  a  language  which  they  suppose  to  be  English  for  their  vehicle, 
are  verily  par  nobile  fratrum,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  the  weakness  of  our 
age  has  not  left  them  exclusively  to  this  appropriate  reward — mutual 
admiration.' 

See  Serm.  2.  3.  243. 

(18)  From  a  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  April,  1843: 

'Having  since  my  first  acquaintance  with  Horace  borne  in  mind 
the  charge  which  he  tells  us  frequently  thrilled  his  ear: 
Solve  senescentem  mature  sanus  equum,  ne 
Peccet  ad  extremum.' 

See  Epist.  1.1.  8-9. 

(19)  From  An  Evening  Walk,  11.  72-77 : 

Did  Sabine  grace  adorn  my  living  line, 

Bandusia's  praise,  wild  stream,  should  yield  to  thine! 

Never  shall  ruthless  minister  of  death 

'Mid  thy  soft  glooms  the  glittering  steel  unsheath; 

No  goblets  shall,  for  thee,  be  crowned  with  flowers, 

No  kid  with  piteous  outcry  thrill  thy  bowers. 

See  Carm.  3.  13: 

O  fons  Bandusiae,  splendidior  vitro, 
Dulci  digne  mero  non  sine  floribus, 
Cras  donaberis  haedo, 

Cui  frons  turgida  cornibus 
Primis  et  venerem  et  proelia  destinat; 
Frustra:  nam  gelidos  inficiet  tibi 
Rubro  sanguine  rivos 

Lascivi  suboles  gregis. 
Te  flagrantis  atrox  hora  Caniculae 
Nescit  tangere,  tu  frigus  amabile 
Fessis  vomere  tauris 

Praebes  et  pecori  vago. 
Fies  nobilium  tu  quoque  fontium, 
Me  dicente  cavis  impositam  ilicem 
Saxis,  unde  loquaces 

Lymphae  desiliunt  tuae. 


William  Wordsworth  57 

(20)  From  The  River  Duddon  1.1-4: 

Not  envying  Latian  shades — if  yet  they  throw 
A  grateful  coolness  round  that  crystal  Spring, 
Bandusia,  prattling  as  when  long  ago 
The  Sabine  Bard  was  moved  her  praise  to  sing. 

See  the  ode  (3.  13)  quoted  above. 

(21)  From  Musings  near  Aquapendente,  11.  255-262: 

Or  Sabine  vales  explored  inspire  a  wish 
To  meet  the  shade  of  Horace  by  the  side 
Of  his  Bandusian  fount;  or  I  invoke 
His  presence  to  point  out  the  spot  where  once 
He'  sate,  and  eulogized  with  earnest  pen 
Peace,  leisure,  freedom,  moderate  desires; 
And  all  the  immunities  of  rural  life 
Extolled,  behind  Vacuna's  crumbling  fane. 

The  first  part  of  this  refers,  of  course,  to  Carm.  3. 13;  the  latter  part, 
beginning  with  line  258,  is  inspired  by  Epist.  1.  10.  The  epistle  need 
not  be  quoted  entire;  several  lines  will  suffice  to  show  where  Words- 
worth finds  his  material: 

Ego  laudo  ruris  amoeni 
Rivos  et  musco  circumlita  saxa  nemusque. 
Quid  quaeris?    Vivo  et  regno,  simul  ista  reliqui, 
Quae  vos  ad  caelum  fertis  rumore  secundo: 


.     .     .     Fuge  magna;  licet  sub  paupere  tecto 
Reges  et  regum  vita  praecurrere  amicos. 

Sic,  qui  pauperiem  veritus  potiore  metallis 
Libertate  caret,  dominum  vehit  improbus  atque 
Serviet  aeternum,  quia  parvo  nesciet  uti. 

Haec  tibi  dictabam  post  fanum  putre  Vacunae. 

(Epist.  1.  10.  6  ff.) 

(22)     From  Liberty,  11.  89-1 10 : 

A  pure  life  uncrossed 
By  cares  in  which  simplicity  is  lost. 
That  life — the  flowery  path  that  winds  by  stealth — 
Which  Horace  needed  for  his  spirit's  health; 
Sighed  for,  in  heart  and  genius  overcome 
By  noise  and  strife  and  questions  wearisome, 
And  the  vain  splendors  of  Imperial  Rome. — 
Let  easy  mirth  his  social  hours  inspire, 
And  fiction  animate  his  sportive  lyre, 


58  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Attuned  to  verse  that,  crowning  light  Distress 
With  garlands,  cheats  her  into  happiness; 
Give  me  the  humblest  note  of  those  sad  strains 
Drawn  forth  by  pressure  of  his  gilded  chains, 
As  a  chance-sunbeam  from  his  memory  fell 
Upon  the  Sabine  farm  he  loved  so  well; 
Or  when  the  prattle  of  Bandusia's  spring 
Haunted  his  ear — he  only  listening — 
He  proud  to  please,  above  all  rivals,  fit 
To  win  the  palm  of  gaiety  and  wit; 
He,  doubt  not,  with  involuntary  dread, 
Shrinking  from  each  new  favor  to  be  shed, 
By  the  world's  Ruler,  on  his  honored  head. 

There  are  many  reminiscences  of  Horace  in  this  passage.  'Ban- 
dusia's spring,'  line  104,  will  at  once  be  recognized  (Carm.  3.  13).  The 
'Sabine  farm,'  line  103,  is  celebrated  by  its  owner  in  Carm.  2. 16.  37; 
2. 18. 14;  3.  1.  47;  Serm.  2.  7.  118;  Epist.  1.  14;  1.  16.  'Noise  and 
strife'  (1.  94)  is  an  echo  of  Carm.  3.  29.  12:  fumum  et  opes  strepitum- 
que  Romae.  For  'questions  wearisome'  (1.  94)  see  Serm.  2.  6.  29  ff. 
'The  flowery  path  that  winds  by  stealth'  (1.  91)  paraphrases  Epist. 
1.  18.  103:  secretum  iter  et  fallentis  semita  mtae.  The 'sportive  lyre' 
of  line  97  is  from  Carm.  3.  3.  69:  iocosae  lyrae.  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  add  that  besides  these  specific  references,  the  theme  of  the  Words- 
worthian  passage  is  frequent  in  Horace. 

(23)     From  The  Prelude  8.  173  ff.: 

Smooth  life  had  flock  and  shepherd  in  old  time, 
Long  springs  and  tepid  winters  on  the  banks 

Of  delicate  Galesus 

And  the  goat-herd  lived 

As  calmly,  underneath  the  pleasant  brows 
Of  cool  Lucretilis,  where  the  pipe  was  heard 
Of  Pan,  Invisible  God,  thrilling  the  rocks 
With  tutelary  music,  from  all  harm 
The  fold  protecting. 

See  Carm.  2.  6.  10  ff.: 

Dulce  pellitis  ovibus  Galaesi 
Flumen     .     .     .    petam,     .     .     . 
Ver  ubi  longum  tepidasque  praebet 
Tuppiter  brumas; 

and  Cam.  1.  17.  1  ff.: 

Velox  amoenum  saepe  Lucretilem 
Mutat  Lycaeo  Faunus  et  igneam 


William  Wordsworth  59 

Defendit  aestatem  capellis 

Usque  meis  pluviosque  ventos. 
Impune  tutum  per  nemus  arbutos 

Quaerunt, 

Utcumque  dulci,  Tyndari,  fistula 


Levia  personuere  saxa. 

(24)    From  the  poem  beginning,  'Departing  summer  hath  as- 
sumed,' 11.  37  ff. : 

Nor  such  the  spirit-stirring  note 
When  the  live  chords  Alcaeus  smote, 
Inflamed  by  sense  of  wrong; 
Woe!  woe  to  Tyrants!  from  the  lyre 
Broke  threateningly,  in  sparkles  dire 
Of  fierce  vindictive  song. 

And  not  unhallowed  was  the  page 
By  winged  Love  inscribed,  to  assuage 
The  pangs  of  vain  pursuit; 
Love  listening  while  the  Lesbian  Maid 
With  finest  touch  of  passion  swayed 
Her  own  Aeolian  lute. 

O  ye,  who  patiently  explore 
The  wreck  of  Herculanean  lore, 
What  rapture!  could  ye  seize 
Some  Theban  fragment,  or  unroll 
One  precious,  tender-hearted  scroll 
Of  pure  Simonides. 

That  were,  indeed,  a  genuine  birth 

Of  poesy: 

What  Horace  gloried  to  behold, 

shall  we  enfold? 

Can  haughty  Time  be  just? 

These  lines  may  be  traced  to  the  following  passages  hi  Horace. 

Non 

Pindaricae  latent 

Ceaeque1  et  Alcaei  minaces 
Stesichorique  graves  Camenae. 

(Cam.  4.  9.  5-8.) 

Spirat  adhuc  amor 

Vivuntque  commissi  calores 

Aeoliae  fidibus  puellae. 

(Cam.  4.  9.  10-12.) 
1  Simonides  of  Ceos. 


60  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Aeoliis  fidibus  querentem 
Sappho  puellis  de  popularibus, 
Et  te  sonantem  plenius  aureo, 
Alcaee,  plectro  dura  navis, 
Dura  fugae  mala,  dura  belli! 

(Cam.  2.  13.  24  ff.) 

Wordsworth  has  expanded  the  ideas  which  he  took  from  these 
verses,  but  his  points  of  departure  are  clear.  The  germ  of  'the  spirit- 
stirring  note'  and  'the  live  chords'  lies  in  sonantem  plenius;  lines  40-42 
are  based  on  Alcaei  minaces\  lines  43-48  go  back  to  the  second  quota- 
tion from  Horace,  although  the  source  of  'Aeolian  lute'  is  probably  the 
Aeoliis  fidibus  of  the  third  quotation. 

(25)  From  the  early  poem  beginning,  'And  has  the  Sun  his  flaming 
chariot  driven,'  1.  13: 

Emerging  slow  from  Academus'  grove. 

SeeEpist.  2.  2.45: 

Atque  inter  silvas  Academi. 

(26)  Wordsworth  again  echoes  this  line  in  Dion,  1.  10: 

Fell  round  him  in  the  grove  of  Academe. 

(27)  From  Stanzas  Composed  in  the  Simplon  Pass,  1.  3: 

Anio's  precipitous  flood. 
See  Carm.  1.  7.  13:  praeceps  Anio. 

(28)  From  The  Prelude  2.  78: 

Our  daily  meals  were  frugal,  Sabine  fare! 

This  refers  to  Horace's  descriptions  of  the  simplicity  with  which  he 
lived  on  his  Sabine  farm  (see  above,  p.  54) ;  there  may  also  be  a  specific 
reminiscence  of  Carm.  1.  20.  1: 

Vile  potabis    ....    Sabinum. 

(29)  From  the  poem  beginning,  'This  Lawn,  a  carpet  all  alive,' 
U.  5-6: 

Worldlings  revelling  in  the  fields 
Of  strenuous  idleness. 

See  Epist.  1.  11.  28:  strenua  inertia-. 

(30)  From  The  Prelude  4.  377-378: 

Making  night  do  penance  for  a  day 
Spent  in  a  round  of  strenuous  idleness. 

See  the  preceding  reference  to  Horace. 


William  Wordsworth  61 

(31)     Of  his  Ode  to  Duty  Wordsworth  says: 

This  Ode  is  on  the  model  of  Gray's  Ode  to  Adversity,  which  is 
copied  from  Horace's  Ode  to  Fortune.' 

The  hymn  to  Fortune  (Carm.  1.  35)  begins  by  describing  the 
omnipotence  of  the  goddess.  There  follows  the  mention  of  those  who 
are  under  her  sway,  including,  of  course,  all  classes  of  men.  Next 
come  descriptions  of  her  forerunner,  Necessity,  and  her  friends,  Hope 
and  Honor.  The  poet  then  speaks  of  the  fickleness  of  the  volgus 
infidum,  which  shuns  those  who  have  suffered  reverses,  and  thus  is 
false  to  Fortune.  He  prays  the  goddess  to  protect  Caesar,  and  ends 
with  a  lament  for  the  civil  wars,  and  a  wish  that  Roman  swords 
might  be  turned  against  a  foreign  enemy. 

Gray,  in  his  Hymn  to  Adversity,  follows  the  plan  of  Horace,  and  is 
sometimes  reminiscent  of  his  language,  as  in  'purple  Tyrants'  (pur- 
pur  ei  tyranni).  Adversity,  like  Fortune,  has  power  over  every  one. 
Tolly's  idle  brood'  fly  at  her  frown;  but  Wisdom,  Melancholy,  Char- 
ity, Justice,  and  Pity  attend  her.  She  is  besought  to  be  gentle  to  her 
suppliant;  and  the  poet  ends  by  saying: 

The  generous  spark  extinct  revive, 
Teach  me  to  love  and  to  forgive, 
Exact  my  own  defects  to  scan, 
What  others  feel,  and  know  myself  a  Man. 

The  details  which  Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Duty  has  in  common  with 
these  two  poems  are  the  idea  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  being  who  is 
the  subject  of  the  ode,  and  the  prayer  for  the  gracious  favor  of  this 
being.  To  quote: 

Who  art  a  light  to  guide,  a  rod 
To  check  the  erring,  and  reprove; 
Thou,  who  art  victory  and  law 
When  empty  terrors  overawe; 
and: 

Oh!  if  through  confidence  misplaced 

They  fail,  thy  saving  arms,  dread  Power!  around  them  cast. 


Give  unto  me,  made  lowly  wise, 

The  spirit  of  self-sacrifice; 

The  confidence  of  reason  give; 

And  in  the  light  of  truth  thy  Bondman  let  me  live! 

Also  the  lines, 

Flowers  laugh  before  thee  on  their  beds 
And  fragrance  in  thy  footing  treads, 


62  The  Influence  of  Horace 

probably  go  back  to  the  theme  of  the  attendants  of  Fortune  and 
Adversity  represented  in  the  other  two  odes.   And  the  first  line  of  the 

Poem>  Stern  Daughter  of  the  Voice  of  God! 

is  an  invocation,  as  is  the  Horatian 

O  diva,  gratum  quae  regis  Antium! 

II.  Probable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  The  Two  April  Mornings,  11.  49-50: 

No  fountain  from  its  rocky  cave 
E'er  tripped  with  foot  so  free. 

SeeCarw.  3.  13.  14-16: 

Me  dicente  cavis  impositam  ilicem 
Saxis,  unde  loquaces 

Lymphae  desiliunt  tuae; 

andEpod.  16.  47-48: 

Montibus  altis 

Levis  crepante  lympha  desilit  pede. 

(2)  From  the  sonnet  Occasioned  by  the  Battle  of  Waterloo,  11.  6-7 : 

Death,  becoming  death,  is  dearer  far, 
When  duty  bids  you  bleed  in  open  war. 

See  Carm.  3.  2.  13: 

Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori. 

(Note  especially  'becoming'  and  decorum.) 

(3)  From  Dion,  1.  71: 

Like  Auster  whirling  to  and  fro. 

This  probably  may  be  traced  to  the  Horatian  turbidus  Auster  of 
Carm.  3.  3.  4-5;  for  it  will  be  remembered  that  turbidus  has  the  same 
root  as  turbo,  a  whirlwind. 

(4)  From  Processions,  11.  33-35 : 

And  a  deeper  dread 

Scattered  on  all  sides  by  the  hideous  jars 
Of  Corybantian  cymbals. 

See  Carm.  1.  16.  7-8: 

Non  acuta 

Sic  geminant  Corybantes  aera. 

(5)  From  the  poem  beginning,  'Departing  summer  hath  assumed,' 
11.  15  fit. :  Fal^  rosy  gariantis,  from  my  head! 

Ye  myrtle  wreaths,  your  fragrance  shed 
Around  a  younger  browl 


William  Wordsworth  63 

These  lines  are  perhaps  based  on  Carm.  1.  38: 

Persicos  odi,  puer,  apparatus 
Displicent  nexae  philyra  coronae; 
Mitte  sectari,  rosa  quo  locorum 

Sera  moretur; 

Simplici  myrto  niliil  adlabores 
Sedulus  euro:  neque  te  ministrum 
Dedecet  myrtus  neque  me  sub  arta 

Vite  bibentem. 

The  application  is  not  the  same;  but  the  juxtaposition  of  the  'rosy 
garlands'  and  the  'myrtle  wreaths'  makes  it  very  probable  that  Words- 
worth, having,  as  we  know,1  Horace  in  mind  while  composing  his  poem, 
recalled  at  the  moment  this  familiar  little  ode.  Horace,  a  poet,  speaks 
of  roses  and  myrtle  as  likely  to  be  used  by  him;  Wordsworth,  declaring 
that  his  days  of  high  poetic  inspiration  are  past,  uses  these  as  sym- 
bolic of  a  power  that  is  deserting  him. 

(6)  From  Inscriptions  Supposed  to  be  Found  in  and  near  a  Hermit's 

Cell  4.  9-10: 

Parching  summer  hath  no  warrant 

To  consume  this  crystal  Well. 
See  Carm.  3.  13.  9-10: 

Te  [fontem  Bandusiae]  flagrantis  atrox  hora  Caniculae 
Nescit  tangere. 

(7)  From  Personal  Talk,  11.  55-56: 

Oh!  might  my  name  be  numbered  among  theirs  [the  Poets'], 
Then  gladly  would  I  end  my  mortal  days. 

See  Carm.  1.1.  35-36: 

Quod  si  me  lyricis  vatibus  inseres, 
Sublimi  feriam  sidera  vertice. 

(8)  From  Extempore  Effusion  upon  the  Death  of  James  Hogg, 

11.  21-24: 

Like  clouds  that  rake  the  mountain-summits, 

Or  waves  that  own  no  curbing  hand, 
How  fast  has  brother  followed  brother, 
From  sunshine  to  the  sunless  land! 

SeeEpist.  2.  2.  175-176: 

Sic  quia  perpetuus  nuUi  datur  usus,  et  heres 
Heredem  alterius  velut  unda  supervenit  undam. 

1  See  above,  pp.  55-56. 


64  The  Influence  of  Horace 

There  are  two  points  of  similarity  between  the  two  passages — the 
simile  of  the  waves,  and  the  phrases,  'brother  followed  brother'  and 
her es  heredem  supervenit.  Either  of  these  taken  separately  might  imply 
nothing;  but  found  in  such  close  conjunction  in  both  cases,  they  sug- 
gest the  possibility  of  a  reminiscence. 

(9)  From  Written  in  March,  11.  11-12: 

Like  an  army  defeated 
The  snow  hath  retreated. 

SeeCarw.  4.  7.  1: 

Diffugere  nives. 

(10)  From  the  sonnet  beginning,  'From  the  dark  chambers  of 
dejection  freed,'  11.  7-10: 

Yet  a  rich  guerdon  waits  on  minds  that  dare, 
If  aught  be  in  them  of  immortal  seed, 
And  reason  govern  that  audacious  flight 
Which  heavenward  they  direct. 

SeeCarw.  3.  4.  65  ff.: 

Vis  consili  expers  mole  ruit  sua: 

Vim  temperatum  di  quoque  provehunt 

In  maius. 

The  'minds  that  dare,'  governed  by  'reason,'  is  perhaps  an  echo  of 
the  Horatian  mm  temperatum,  with  a  backward  look  at  the  consili  of 
the  preceding  line. 

(11)  From  a  letter  to  Francis  Wrangham  (February,  1819): 

'Dear  Wrangham,  are  you  and  I  ever  likely  to  meet  in  this  world 
again?     Yours  is  a  corner  of  the  earth;  mine  is  not  so.' 

The  italics  of  the  word  'corner,'  which  seem  to  have  some  particu- 
lar significance,  suggest  a  comparison  with  Carm.  2.  6.  13-14: 

Ille  terrarum  mihi  praeter  omnes 
Angulus  ridet. 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR  COLERIDGE 

7.   Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  Table  Talk,  May  14,  1833: 

'If  Wilson  cares  for  fame,  for  an  enduring  place  and  prominence  in 
literature,  he  should  now,  I  think,  hold  his  hand,  and  say,  as  he  well 

may: 

Militam  non  sine  gloria; 

Nunc  arma  defunctumque  bello 
Barbiton  hie  paries  habebit.' 

See  Carm.  3.  26.  2-4. 

(2)  From  a  review  in  The  Morning  Post,  March  27,  1800: 

'He  [Arthur  Young]  hastened  to  avow  his  recantation  in  a  work 
almost  lyrically  unconnected,  and  set  to  a  more  boisterous  music  than 
would  have  suited  any  species  of  the  Lyric,  except  the  Palinodia. 
Quid  amplius  vis?    O  mare!  O  terra!  ardeo, 
Quantum  neque  atro  delibutus  Hercules 

Nessi  cruore 

Quae  finis  aut  quod  me  manet  stipendium? 

(Ejod.  17.)' 

See  Epod.  17.  30-36  (abridged,  and  a  slight  alteration  in  1.  30, 
where  we  should  read  et  terra  for  O  terra}. 

(3)  From  a  contribution  to  The  Courier,  June  4,  1811: 

'The  inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula  are  our  friends,  and  we  cannot 
permit  our  own  boys  to  tell  us  from  their  school-books: 

Absentem  qui  laedit,  amicum 
Qui  non  defendit  alio  culpante, — 
Hie  niger  est!' 

See  Serm.  1.  4.  81-85.     (Abridged.     For  laedit  read  rodit.) 

(4)  From  a  note  to  a  sentence  in  A  Lay  Sermon  (the  sentence 
reads:  'It  is  well  known,  and  has  been  observed  of  old,  that  poetry 
tends  to  render  its  devotees  careless  of  money  and  outward  appear- 
ances.'): 

Hie  error  tamen  et  levis  haec  insania  quantas 

Virtutes  habeat,  sic  collige.    Vatis  avarus 

Non  temere  est  animus;  versus  amat,  hoc  studet  unum; 

Detrimenta,  fugas  servorum,  incendia  ridet; 

Non  fraudem  socio  puerove  incogitat  ullam 

Pupillo;  vivit  siliquis  et  pane  secundo; 

Militiae  quamquam  piger  et  malus,  utilis  urbi. 

(Epist.  2.  1.  118[ff.]) 


66  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(5)  From  a  suppressed  passage  in  The  Friend: 

'Conscious  that  I  am  about  to  deliver  my  sentiments  on  a  subject 
of  the  utmost  delicacy — to  walk 

per  ignes 

Suppositos  cineri  doloso  — 

I  have  been  tempted  by  my  fears  to  preface  them  with  a  motto  of 
unusual  length.' 
See  Carm.  2.  1.  7-8. 

(6)  From  A  Lay  Sermon: 

'This  accomplished  man  of  the  world  has  given  an  account  of  the 
subjects  of  conversation  between  the  illustrious  statesmen  who 
governed,  and  the  brightest  luminaries  who  then  adorned,  the  empire 
of  the  civilized  world: 

Sermo  oritur,  non  de  villis  domibusve  alienis, 
Nee  male  necne  Lepos  saltet;  sed  quod  magis  ad  nos 
Pertinet  et  nescire  malum  est,  agitamus:  utrumne 
Divitiis  homines  an  sint  virtute  beati, 


Et  quod  sit  natura  boni  summumque  quid  eius. 

(Serm.  2.  6.  71  ff.)' 
(For  quod  in  the  last  line  read  quae.) 

(7)  Motto  of  poem,  To  the  Rev.  George  Coleridge: 

Notus  in  fratres  animi  paterni.     ,  _  ,  r,  _x 

(Carm.  2.  2.  [6.]) 

(8)  From  Anima  Poetae,  1806-1807 : 

'Serpentium  adlapsus  timet.  Quaere — allapse  of  serpents.   Horace. 
— What  other  word  have  we?' 
See  Epod.  1.  20. 

(9)  Motto  of  Reflections  on  Having  Left  a  Place  of  Retirement: 

'Sermoni  propriora. — Hor.' 
See  Serm.  1.  4.  42.     (For  propriora  read  propiora.) 

(10)  The  same  phrase  is  used  in  a  note  appended  to  an  autograph 
manuscript  of  Fears  in  Solitude. 

(11)  From  an  essay  On  the  Third  Possible  Church: 
'Mons  adhuc  parturit:  the  ridiculus  mus  was  but  an  omen.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  139:  parturient  monies,  nascetur  ridiculus  mus. 

(12)  From  Biographia  Liter  aria,  chapter  2: 

They  [readers]  in  general  apply  to  all  poets  the  old  sarcasm  of 
Horace  upon  the  scribblers  of  his  time:  Genus  irritabile  vatum.' 


Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  67 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  102. 

(13)  From  Vindication  of  Southey: 

— 'Any  man  that  daily  reverences  the  old  Horatian  verdict: 
Who  basely  wounds  an  absent  friend's  fair  fame, 
Or  skulks  from  his  defense  when  others  blame, 
Is— 

but  we  leave  the  completing  line  to  be  translated  in  private  by  those 
whom  it  may  concern.' 

See  Serm.  1.  4.  81  ff. — quoted  above,  No.  3. 

(14)  The  title  of  the  poem  Dura  Navis  is  from  Carm.  2.  13.  27. 

(15)  From  a  note  to  the  same  poem: 

'Old  Jemmy  Boyer,  the  plagose  Orbilius  of  Christ's  Hospital.' 
See  Epist.  2.  1.  70-71:  plagosum  Orbilium. 

(16)  From  Talleyrand  to  Lord  Grenwlle,  11.  35-36: 

No  time  from  my  name  this  my  motto  shall  sever: 
'Twill  be  Non  sine  pulvere  palma  for  ever. 

See  Epist.  1.  1.51: 

Cui  sit  condicio  dulcis  sine  pulvere  palmae? 

(17)  From  Nonsense  Sapphics: 

Here's  Jem's  first  copy  of  nonsense  verses, 
All  in  the  antique  style  of  Mistress  Sappho, 
Latin  just  like  Horace  the  tuneful  Roman, 
Sapph's  imitator: 

But  we  Bards,  we  classical  Lyric  Poets, 
Know  a  thing  or  two  in  a  scurvy  Planet: 
Don't  we,  now?    Eh?    Brother  Horatius  Flaccus, 
Tip  us  your  paw,  Lad: 

Here's  to  Maecenas  and  the  other  worthies; 
Rich  men  of  England!  would  ye  be  immortal? 
Patronize  Genius,  giving  Cash  and  Praise  to 
Gillman  Jacobus. 

//.   Probable  traces  of  Horace 
(1)    Title  of  a  poem  in  Christ's  Hospital  book: 

Nil  Pejus  Est  Caelibe  Vita. 

Set  Epist.  1.  1.88: 

Melius  nil  caelibe  vita. 


68  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(2)  From  Honour,  11.  23-24: 

Or  thunder  at  thy  door  the  midnight  train, 

Or  Death  shall  knock  that  never  knocks  in  vain. 

SeeCarw.  1.  4.  13: 

Pallida  mors  aequo  pulsat  pede  pauperum  tabernas. 

(3)  From  Easter  Holidays,  1.  13 : 

With  mirthful  dance  they  beat  the  ground. 

See  C 'arm.  1.4.  7: 

Alterno  terram  quatiunt  pede; 

and  Carm.  1.  37.  1-2: 

Nunc  pede  libero 

Pulsanda  tellus. 

(4)  First  stanza  of  a  poem  called  Names,  adapted  from  Lessing: 

I  ask'd  my  fair  one  happy  day, 
What  I  should  call  her  in  my  lay; 

By  what  sweet  name  from  Rome  or  Greece; 
Lalage,  Neaera,  Chloris, 
Sappho,  Lesbia,  or  Doris, 

Arethusa  or  Lucrece. 

In  the  German  the  names  are  different.  Coleridge  probably  bor- 
rows Lalage  and  Neaera  from  Horace,  who  celebrates  the  former  in 
Carm.  1.  22  and  2.  5,  the  latter  in  Epod.  15.  11. 


LORD  BYRON 

I.    Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  Foremost  in  importance  among  the  portions  of  Byron's 
writings  that  show  a  Horatian  influence  stands,  of  course,  the  Hints 
from  Horace,  which  is,  as  the  poet  himself  puts  it,  'an  allusion  in  En- 
glish verse  to  the  Epistle  Ad  Pisones,  De  Arte  Poetical  As  we  might 
expect,  the  first  motto  of  the  work  is  from  the  original: 

Ergo  fungar  vice  cotis,  acutum 
Reddere  quae  ferrum  valet,  exsors  ipsa  secandi. 

(Ars  Poet.  304-305.) 

It  would  not  be  to  the  purpose  to  transcribe  here  either  the  entire 
Ars  Poetica  or  the  whole  of  Hints  from  Horace.  I  shall  therefore  con- 
tent myself  with  recording  what  seem  to  be  the  salient  features  of 
Byron's  paraphrase.  We  have  already  remarked  (see  Introduction, 
p.  35)  on  the  difference  in  tone  between  his  version  and  the  original; 
we  may  now  take  up  more  technical  matters. 

(a)  Frequently  Byron's  renderings  are  so  close  as  to  deserve  the 
name  of  translations;  and  sometimes  they  combine  with  this  accuracy 
a  surprising  and  delightful  felicity.    Take,  for  instance,  11.  99-100  of 
the  Latin: 

Non  satis  est  pulchra  esse  poemata;  dulcia  sun  to 
Et,  quocumque  volent,  animum  auditoris  agunto, 

which  reappears  thus: 

"Tis  not  enough,  ye  Bards,  with  all  your  art 
To  polish  poems; — they  must  touch  the  heart: 
Where'er  the  scene  be  laid,  whate'er  the  song, 
Still  let  it  bear  the  hearer's  soul  along. 

(b)  Nearly  always  Byron  substitutes  English  persons  and  places 
for  the  Greek  and  Latin  examples  of  Horace;  as  11.  52-57: 

Et  nova  fictaque  nuper  habebunt  verba  fidem,  si 
Graeco  fonte  cadent  parce  detorta.     Quid  autem 
Caecilio  Plautoque  dabit  Romanus  ademptum 
Vergilio  Varioque?    Ego  cur,  adquirere  pauca 
Si  possum,  invideor,  cum  lingua  Catonis  et  Enni 
Sermonem  patrium  ditaverit, 


70  The  Influence  of  Horace 

which  he  renders: 

New  words  find  credit  in  these  latter  days, 

If  neatly  grafted  on  a  Gallic  phrase; 

What  Chaucer,  Spenser  did,  we  scarce  refuse 

To  Dryden's  or  to  Pope's  maturer  Muse. 

If  you  can  add  a  little,  say  why  not, 

As  well  as  William  Pitt,  and  Walter  Scott? 

Since  they,  by  force  of  rhyme  and  force  of  lungs, 

Enriched  our  Island's  ill-united  tongues. 

(LI.  79-86.) 

Possibly  the  happiest  instance  of  this  is  the  version  of  11.  140-145: 

Quanto  rectius  hie  qui  nil  molitur  inepte: 
'Die  mini,  Musa,  virum,  captae  post  tempora  Troiae 
Qui  mores  hominum  multorum  vidit  et  urbes.' 
Non  fumum  ex  fulgore,  sed  ex  fumo  dare  lucem 
Cogitat,  ut  speciosa  dehinc  miracula  promat, 
Antiphaten  Scyllamque  et  cum  Cyclope  Charybdim; 

which  runs: 

Not  so  of  yore  awoke  your  mighty  Sire 
The  tempered  warblings  of  his  master-lyre; 
Soft  as  the  gentler  breathing  of  the  lute, 
'Of  Man's  first  disobedience  and  the  fruit' 
He  speaks,  but,  as  his  subject  swells  along, 
Earth,  Heaven,  and  Hades  echo  with  the  song. 

(LI.  199-204.) 
Other  substitutions  are  made  for  the  sake  of  giving  a  modern  flavor 

to  the  satire,  as  in  the  case  of  11.  161-165: 

Imberbis  iuvenis,  tandem  custode  remoto, 
Gaudet  equis  canibusque  et  aprici  gramine  campi, 
Cereus  in  vitium  flecti,  monitoribus  asper, 
Utilium  tardus  provisor,  prodigus  aeris, 
Sublimis  cupidusque  et  amata  relinquere  pernix. 

This  Byron  paraphrases: 

Behold  him  Freshman!  forced  no  more  to  groan 
O'er  Virgil's  devilish  verses  and  his  own; 
Prayers  are  too  tedious,  Lectures  too  abstruse, 
He  flies  from  Tavell's  frown  to  Tordham's  Mews'; 


Fines,  Tutors,  tasks,  Conventions  threat  in  vain, 
Before  hounds,  hunters,  and  Newmarket  Plain. 
Rough  with  his  elders,  with  his  equals  rash, 
Civil  to  sharpers,  prodigal  of  cash; 
Constant  to  nought — save  hazard  and  a  whore, 


LIBRARY 


rl 


Lord  Byron  71 

Yet  cursing  both — for  both  have  made  him  sore: 

Fooled,  pillaged,  dunned,  he  wastes  his  terms  away, 
And  unexpelled,  perhaps,  retires  M.  A. 

(LI.  225-240.) 

(c)  In  a  few  cases  Byron  would  seem  to  have  mistaken  the  mean- 
ing of  a  passage  in  the  Latin;  as  in  11.  111-113: 

Post  effert  animi  motus  interprete  lingua. 
Si  dicentis  erunt  fortunis  absona  dicta, 
Romani  tollent  equites  peditesque  cachinnum, 

which  he  renders: 

And  for  Expression's  aid,  'tis  said,  or  sung, 
She  gave  our  mind's  interpreter — the  tongue, 
Who,  worn  with  use,  of  late  would  fain  dispense 
(At  least  hi  theaters)  with  common  sense; 
O'erwhelm  with  sound  the  boxes,  Gallery,  Pit, 
And  raise  a  laugh  with  anything — but  Wit. 

(d)  Sometimes  Byron's  version  of  a  passage  is  very  free.     Com- 
pare Horace  (11.  31-37)  — 

In  vitium  ducit  culpae  fuga,  si  caret  arte. 
Aemilium  circa  ludum  faber  imus  et  unguis 
Exprimet  et  mollis  imitabitur  acre  capillos, 
Infelix  operis  summa,  quia  ponere  totum 
Nesciet.    Hunc  ego  me,  siquid  componere  curem, 
Non  magis  esse  velim,  quam  naso  vivere  pravo, 
Spectandum  nigris  oculis  nigroque  capillo — 

with  Byron: 

Unless  your  care's  exact,  your  judgment  nice, 

The  flight  from  Folly  leads  but  into  Vice; 

None  are  complete,  all  wanting  in  some  part, 

Like  certain  tailors,  limited  in  art: 

For  galligaskins  Slowshears  is  your  man, 

But  coats  must  claim  another  artisan. 

Now  this  to  me,  I  own,  seems  much  the  same 

As  Vulcan's  feet  to  bear  Apollo's  frame; 

Or,  with  a  fair  complexion,  to  expose 

Black  eyes,  black  ringlets,  but — a  bottle  nose. 

(LI.  49-58.) 

(e)  At  times  we  find  Byron  considerably  abridging  the  Latin;  for 
example,  11.  175-178, 

Multa  ferunt  anni  venientes  commoda  secum, 
Multa  recedentes  adimunt.     Ne  forte  seniles 


72  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Mandentur  iuveni  partes  pueroque  viriles, 
Semper  in  adiunctis  aevoque  morabimur  aptis, 

have  no  counterpart  in  Byron's  Hints. 

(f)  Again,  in  some  places  Byron  expands  his  original — much  more, 
in  fact,  than  in  others  he  abridges  it.    An  instance  of  this  is  the  pas- 
sage, already  quoted,  describing  the  youthful  collegian.    For  another 
we  may  select  11.  193-201: 

Actons  partis  chorus  officiumque  virile 
Defendat,  neu  quid  medios  intercinat  actus 
Quod  non  proposito  conducat  et  haereat  apte. 
Ille  bonis  faveatque  et  consilietur  amice 
Et  regat  iratos  et  amet  pacare  timentis; 
Ille  dapes  laudet  mensae  brevis,  ille  salubrem 
lustitiam  legesque  et  apertis  otia  portis; 
Ille  tegat  commissa  deosque  precetur  et  oret 
Ut  redeat  miseris,  abeat  fortuna  superbis. 

This  is  enlarged  and  altered  to 

Of  all  the  monstrous  things  I'd  fain  forbi  d 
I  loathe  an  Opera  worse  than  Dennis  did; 
Where  good  and  evil  persons,  right  or  wrong, 
Rage,  love,  and  aught  but  moralize — in  song. 
Hail,  last  memorial  of  our  foreign  friends, 
Which  Gaul  allows,  and  still  Hesperia  lends! 
Napoleon's  edicts  no  embargo  lay 
On  Whores — spies — singers — wisely  shipped  away. 
Our  giant  Capital,  whose  squares  are  spread 
Where  rustics  earned,  and  now  may  beg,  their  bread, 
In  all  iniquity  is  grown  so  nice, 
It  scorns  amusements  which  are  not  of  price. 
Hence  the  pert  shopkeeper,  whose  throbbing  ear 
Aches  with  orchestras  which  he  paid  to  hear, 
Whom  shame,  not  sympathy,  forbids  to  snore, 
His  anguish  doubling  by  his  own  'encore'; 
Squeezed  in  'Fop's  Alley,'  jostled  by  the  beaux, 
Teased  with  his  hat,  and  trembling  for  his  toes; 
Scarce  wrestles  through  the  night,  nor  tastes  of  ease, 
Till  the  dropped  curtain  gives  a  glad  release: 
Why  this,  and  more,  he  suffers — can  ye  guess? — 
Because  it  costs  him  dear,  and  makes  him  dress! 

(LI.  295-316.) 

(g)  Finally,  Byron  frequently  makes  interpolations  that  have  no 
basis  whatever  in  Horace.    There  is,  for  instance,  the  long  diatribe 
on  Jeffrey  (U.  589-626): 


Lord  Byron  73 

Again,  my  Jeffrey — as  that  sound  inspires, 

How  wakes  my  bosom  to  its  wonted  fires ! 

Fires,  such  as  gentle  Caledonians  feel 

When  Southrons  writhe  upon  their  critic  wheel, 

Or  mild  Eclectics,  when  some,  worse  than  Turks, 

Would  rob  poor  Faith  to  decorate  'Good  Works.' 

Such  are  the  genial  feelings  thou  canst  claim — 

My  Falcon  flies  not  at  ignoble  game. 

Mightiest  of  all  Dunedin's  beasts  of  chase! 

For  thee  my  Pegasus  would  mend  his  pace. 

Arise,  my  Jeffrey!  or  my  inkless  pen 

Shall  never  blunt  its  edge  on  meaner  men; 

Till  thee  or  thine  mine  evil  eye  discerns, 

'Alas!    I  cannot  strike  at  wretched  kernes.' 

Inhuman  Saxon!  wilt  thou  then  resign 

A  Muse  and  heart  by  choice  so  wholly  thine? 

Dear  d — d  contemner  of  my  schoolboy  songs, 

Hast  thou  no  vengeance  for  my  Manhood's  wrongs? 

If  unprovoked  thou  once  could  bid  me  bleed, 

Hast  thou  no  weapon  for  my  daring  deed? 

What!  not  a  word! — and  am  I  then  so  low? 

Wilt  thou  forbear,  who  never  spared  a  foe? 

Hast  thou  no  wrath,  or  wish  to  give  it  vent? 

No  wit  for  Nobles,  Dunces  by  descent? 

No  jest  on  'minors,'  quibbles  on  a  name, 

Nor  one  facetious  paragraph  of  blame? 

Is  it  for  this  on  Ilion  I  have  stood, 

And  thought  of  Homer  less  than  Holyrood? 

On  shore  of  Euxine  or  Aegean  sea, 

My  hate,  untravelled,  fondly  turned  to  thee. 

Ah!  let  me  cease!  in  vain  my  bosom  burns, 

From  Corydon  unkind  Alexis  turns: 

Thy  rhymes  are  vain;  thy  Jeffrey  then  forego, 

Nor  woo  that  anger  which  he  will  not  show. 

What  then? — Edina  starves  some  lanker  son, 

To  write  an  article  thou  canst  not  shun; 

Some  less  fastidious  Scotchman  shall  be  found, 

As  bold  in  Billingsgate,  though  less  renowned. 

(2)     So  much  for  the  Hints.    Another  Byronic  adaptation  of 
Horace  is  from  Carm.  3.  3.  1-8: 

The  man  of  firm  and  noble  soul 
No  factious  clamours  can  control; 
No  threat'ning  tyrant's  darkling  brow 

Can  swerve  him  from  his  just  intent : 
Gales  the  warring  waves  which  plough, 

By  Auster  on  the  billows  spent, 


74  The  Influence  of  Horace 

To  curb  the  Adriatic  main, 
Would  awe  his  fix'd,  determin'd  mind  in  vain. 

Aye,  and  the  red  right  arm  of  Jove, 
Hurtling  his  lightnings  from  above, 
With  all  his  terrors  there  unfurl'd, 

He  would,  unmov'd,  unaw'd,  behold. 
The  flames  of  an  expiring  world, 

Again  in  crashing  chaos  roll'd, 
In  vast  promiscuous  ruin  hurl'd, 
Might  light  his  glorious  funeral  pile: 
Still  dauntless  'midst  the  wreck  of  earth  he'd  smile. 

The  well-known  original  is  as  follows: 

lustum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 

Non  civium  ardor  prava  iubentium, 

Non  voltus  instantis  tyranni 

Mente  quatit  soli  da,  neque  Auster, 
Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae, 
Nee  fulminantis  magna  manus  lovis; 
Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae. 

(Note  that  Byron's  'red  right  arm'  comes  not  from  this  ode,  but 
from  Carm.  1.  2.  2-3:  rubente  dextera.) 

(3)     From  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  4.  74  and  77: 

These  hills  seem  things  of  lesser  dignity; 

All,  save  the  lone  Soracte's  height,  displayed 

Not  now  in  snow,  which  asks  the  lyric  Roman's  aid. 


Then  farewell,  Horace — whom  I  hated  so, 
Not  for  thy  faults,  but  mine:  it  is  a  curse 
To  understand,  not  feel  thy  lyric  flow, 
To  comprehend,  but  never  love  thy  verse; 
Although  no  deeper  Moralist  rehearse 
Our  little  life,  nor  Bard  prescribe  his  art, 
Nor  livelier  Satirist  the  conscience  pierce, 
Awakening  without  wounding  the  touched  heart, 
Yet  fare  thee  well — upon  Soracte's  ridge  we  part. 

Horace's  reference  to  Soracte  is  in  Carm.  1.  9.  1-2: 

Vides  ut  alta  stet  nive  candidum 
Soracte. 

(4)     Motto  of  a  poem  addressed  To  Edward  Noel  Long,  Esq. 

Nil  ego  contulerim  iucundo  sanus  amico. 
See  Serm.  1.  5.  44. 


Lord  Byron  75 

(5)  On  the  title-page  of  the  1807  edition  of  Hours  of  Idleness  is 
printed: 

Virginibus  puerisque  canto. 

o      r*          t    *    ,  Horace. 

See  Carm.  3.  1.  4. 

(6)  Motto  of  Marino  Faliero: 

Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae. 

Horace. 
See  Carm.  3.  3.  5. 

(7)  From  The  Bluest  156: 

'Tis  high  time  for  a  Sic  me  seroamt  Apollo. 
See  Serm.  1.  9.  78. 

(8)  From  Don  Juan  1.  216: 

My  days  of  love  are  over;  me  no  more 

The  charms  of  maid,  wife,  and  still  less  of  widow, 

Can  make  the  fool  of  which  they  made  before, — 
In  short,  I  must  not  lead  the  life  I  did  do; 

The  credulous  hope  of  mutual  minds  is  o'er, 
The  copious  use  of  claret  is  forbid  too. 

Byron  appends  this  footnote: 

Me  nee  femina  nee  puer 

lam  nee  spes  animi  credula  mutui, 

Nee  certare  iuvat  mero 

Nee  vincire  novis  tempora  floribus. 

(Carm.  4.  1.  30  [29-32].) 

(9)  From  Don  Juan  1.  212: 

Non  ego  hoc  j err  em  calidus  iuventa 
Consule  Planco,  Horace  said. 
See  Carm.  3.  14.  27-28. 

(10)  From  Don  Juan  14.  21 : 

Vetabo  Cereris  sacrum  qui  vulgarit — 
Which  means,  that  vulgar  people  must  not  share  it. 

See  Carm.  3.  2.  26-27:  vetabo  qui  Cereris  sacrum  wlgarit. 

(11)  From  Don  Juan  13.  81 : 

Or  (to  the  point  with  Horace  and  with  Pulci) 
Omne  tulit  punctum,  quae  miscuit  utile  dulci. 

See  Ars  Poet.  343.     (For  quae  read  qui.) 


76  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(12)  From  Don  Juan  1.  6: 

Most  epic  poets  plunge  in  medias  res 
(Horace  makes  this  the  heroic  turnpike  road). 
See  Ars  Poet.  148. 

(13)  From  Don  Juan  13.  34-35 : 

Perhaps  we  have  borrowed  this  from  the  Chinese — 
Perhaps  from  Horace:  his  Nil  admirari 
Was  what  he  called  the  'Art  of  Happiness.' 

SeeEpist.  1.  6.  1-2. 

(14)  The  same  phrase  is  found  in  Don  Juan  5.  100-101 : 

And  I  must  say,  I  ne'er  could  see  the  very 
Great  happiness  of  the  Nil  admirari. 

'Not  to  admire  is  all  the  art  I  know 

(Plain  truth,  dear  Murray,  needs  few  flowers  of  speech) 

To  make  men  happy,  or  to  keep  them  so'; 

(So  take  it  in  the  very  words  of  Creech) — 

Thus  Horace  wrote  we  all  know  long  ago; 

And  thus  Pope  quotes  the  precept  to  reteach 

From  his  translation;  but  had  none  admired, 

Would  Pope  have  sung,  or  Horace  been  inspired? 

(15)  From  Don  Juan  14.  77: 

Beatus  Hie  procull  from  negotiis, 

Saith  Horace;  the  great  little  poet's  wrong; 

His  other  maxim,  Noscitur  a  socils, 

Is  much  more  to  the  purpose  of  his  song; 

Though  even  that  were  sometimes  too  ferocious, 

Unless  good  company  be  kept  too  long. 

See  Epod.  2.  1 : 

Beatus  ille  qui  procul  negotiis. 

Byron  makes  a  slip  in  attributing  his  other  quotation  to  Horace;  it  is, 
so  far  as  I  can  discover,  of  unknown  origin. 

(16)  From  Don  Juan  6.  17: 

In  short,  the  maxim  for  the  amorous  tribe  is 
Horatian :  Media  tu  tulissimus  ibis. 

Again  Byron  is  mistaken.    The  doctrine  is  Horatian,  to  be  sure; 
but  the  words  are  from  Ovid,  Metamorphoses  2.  137. 

(17)  From  Don  Juan  9.  15 : 

0  dura  ilia  messorum! — 'Oh 

Ye  rigid  guts  of  reapers!'     I  translate. 

See  Epod.  3.  4:  o  dura  messorum  ilia. 


Lord  Byron  77 

(18)  From  Don  Juan  9.  55 : 

Oh  thou  teterrima  causa  of  all  belli — 

Thou  gate  of  Life  and  Death — thou  nondescript! 

In  a  footnote  Byron  refers  to  Serm.  1.  3.  107-108. 

(19)  From  Don  Juan  17.  10: 

Just  as  I  make  my  mind  up  every  day, 
To  be  a  totus,  teres,  Stoic,  Sage, 
The  wind  shifts  and  I  fly  into  a  rage. 
See  Serm.  2.  7.  86. 

(20)  From  The  Vision  of  Judgment,  1.  91: 

Non  di,  non  homines — you  know  the  rest. 

See  Ars  Poet.  372-373: 

Mediocribus  esse  poetis 
Non  homines,  non  di,  non  concessere  columnae. 

(21)  From  the  preface  to  The  Vision  of  Judgment: 

'However,  it  is  worthy  of  him — qualis  ab  incepto? 
See  Ars  Poet.  127. 

(22)  My  Boy  Hobbie  O  is  signed 

'infidus  Scurra.' 
See  Epist.  1.  18.  4:  infido  scurrae  distabit  amicus. 

(23)  From  Don  Juan  12.  70: 

For  Europe  ploughs  in  Afric  like  bos  piger. 
See  Epist.  1.  14.  43. 

(24)  From  Don  Juan  11.  86: 

But  carpe  diem,  Juan,  carpe,  carpel 
See  Cam.  1.  11.  8. 

(25)  From  Don  Juan  5.63: 

Yet  let  them  think  that  Horace  has  expressed 

Shortly  and  sweetly  the  masonic  folly 
Of  those,  forgetting  the  great  place  of  rest, 

Who  give  themselves  to  Architecture  wholly; 
We  know  where  things  and  men  must  end  at  best : 

A  moral  (like  all  morals)  melancholy, 
And  Et  sepulckri  immemor  struts  domos 
Shows  that  we  build  when  we  should  but  entomb  us. 

See  Carm.  2.  18.  18-19. 


78  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(26)  From  Don  Juan  11.  60: 

"Tis  strange  the  mind,  that  very  fiery  particle, 
Should  let  itself  be  snuffed  out  by  an  article. 

Byron's  own  note  on  this  is:  'Divinae  particulam  aurae' —  which 
comes  from  Serm.  2.  2.  79. 

(27)  From  The  Age  of  Bronze,  stanza  13: 

That  nose,  the  hook  where  he  suspends  the  world. 

Byron's  note  is:  'Naso  suspendis  adunco. — Horace.' 
See  Serm.  1.  6.  5. 

(28)  From  Werner  2.  1.  19: 

Poor  as  a  miser. 
In  writing  to  Murray,  May  29,  1822,  Byron  says: 

'Your  printer  has  made  one  odd  mistake — "poor  as  a  Mouse" 
instead  of  "poor  as  a  Miser. "  The  expression  may  seem  strange,  but 
it  is  only  a  translation  of  Semper  avarus  eget.' 

See  Epist.  1.  2.  56. 

(29)  From  a  suppressed  stanza  of  Childe  Harold 's  Pilgrimage  1: 
While  roared  the  blatant  Beast,  and  roared,  and  raged,  and — slept!! 

Byron  has  the  following  note  on  this: 

'  "  Blatant  beast. "  A  figure  for  the  mob.  I  think  first  used  by 
Smollett,  in  his  Adventures  of  an  Atom.  Horace  has  the  bettua  mul- 
torum  capitum.' 

Though  we  may  deplore  the  poet's  ignorance  of  Spenser,  we  must 
accept  his  Horatian  reference.  We  find  in  Epist.  1.  1.  76,  belua  mul- 
torum  es  capitum. 

(30)  From  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  1  (To  Inez) : 

What  Exile  from  himself  can  flee? 

See  Carm.  2.  16.  19-20: 

Patriae  quis  exsul 
Se  quoque  fugit? 

(31)  From  Don  Juan  1.5: 

Brave  men  were  living  before  Agamemnon. 
See  Carm.  4.  9.  25: 

Vixere  fortes  ante  Agamemnona. 


Lord  Byron  79 

(32)  From  Don  Juan  3.  98 : 

We  learn  from  Horace,  'Homer  sometimes  sleeps.' 
See  Ars  Poet.  359: 

Quandoque  bonus  dormitat  Homerus. 

(33)  Again  in  Don  Juan  (5.  159)  we  have  the  same  expression: 

Meanwhile,  as  Homer  sometimes  sleeps,  perhaps 
You'll  pardon  to  my  muse  a  few  short  naps. 

(34)  From  Ode  on  Venice,  stanza  4: 

Those  whose  red  right  hands  have  bought 
Rights  cheaply  earned  with  blood. 

See  Carm.  1.  2.  2-3:  rubente  dexter  a. 

(35)  From  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  4.  174: 

Where  yon  bar 

Of  girdling  mountains  intercepts  the  sight 
The  Sabine  farm  was  tilled,  the  weary  Bard's  delight. 

Horace  frequently  refers  to  his  Sabine  farm,  the  gift  of  Maecenas. 
See  Carm.  2.  16.  37,  2.  18.  14,  3.  1.  47,  Serm.  2.  7.  118,  Epist.  1.  14.  1, 
1.  16.  1  ff. 

(36)  From  Don  Juan  2.  205 : 

Oh,  Love!  of  whom  great  Caesar  was  the  suitor, 

Titus  the  master,  Antony  the  slave, 
Horace,  Catullus,  scholars. 

(37)  From  The  Age  of  Bronze,  stanza  12: 

Why  wouldst  thou  leave  calm  Hartwell's  green  abode, 
Apician  table,  and  Horatian  ode  ? 

(38)  From  Farewell  Petition  to  J.  C.  E.,  Esqre.  : 

Tell  him,  that  not  in  vain  I  shall  assay 
To  tread  and  trace  our  'old  Horatian  way,' l 
And  be  (with  prose  supply  my  dearth  of  rhymes) 
What  better  men  have  been  hi  better  times. 

(39)  In  the  preface  to  The  Prophecy  of  Dante,  Byron  says: 

'In  adopting  this  plan  I  have  had  hi  my  mind  the  Cassandra  of 
Lycophron,  and  the  Prophecy  of  Nereus  by  Horace,  as  well  as  the 
Prophecies  of  Holy  Writ.' 

For  the  Horatian  reference  see  Carm.  1.  15. 

1  See  Roscommon,  'An  Essay  on  Translated  Verse,  1.  2. 


80  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(40)  From  a  letter  to  William  Gifford,  November  12,  1813: 

'It  deserves  no  better  than  the  first,  as  the  work  of  a  week,  and 
scribbled  stans  pede  in  uno  (by  the  by,  the  only  foot  I  have  to  stand 
on).' 

See  Serm.  1.  4.  10. 

(41)  From  Byron's  journal,  November  22,  1813: 

'Oh  that  face!— by  te,  diva  potens  Cypri,  I  would,  to  be  beloved  by 
that  woman,  build  and  burn  another  Troy.' 

See  Carm.  1.  3.  1. 

(42)  From  Byron's  journal,  November,  1813: 

'I  thought,  if  crushed,  he  would  have  fallen,  when  fractus  illabitur 
orbis.' 

See  Carm.  3.  3.  7:  fractus  illabatur  orbis. 

(43)  From  Byron's  journal,  February  18,  1814: 

'Divesne  prisco  natus  ab  Inacho 
Nil  interest  an  pauper  et  infima 
De  gente,  sub  dio  [sic]  moreris, 
Victima  nil  miserantis  Orci. 
Omnes  eodem  cogimur,  etc. 

'Is  there  anything  beyond? — who  knows? 
He  that  can't  tell.' 

See  Carm.  2.  3.  21  ff.     (For  dio  read  divo.) 

(44)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Moore,  March  3,  1814: 

'Even  Horace's  Nonum  prematur  must  have  been  intended  for  the 
Millennium,  or  some  longer-lived  generation  than  ours.  I  wonder 
how  much  we  should  have  had  of  him,  had  he  observed  his  own  doc- 
trines to  the  letter.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  388. 

(45)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Moore,  February  2,  1815: 

'I  wish  you  would  respond,  for  I  am  here  oblitusque  meorum  oblims- 
cendus  et  illis.' 

SeeEpist.  1.  11.9. 

(46)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Moore,  June  1,  1818: 

'Failure  will  be  probable,  and  my  fair  woman,  superne,  end  in  a 
fish.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  3-4: 

Ut  turpiter  atrum 
Desinat  in  piscem  mulier  formosa  superne. 


Lord  Byron  81 

(47)  From  a  letter  to  John  Murray,  May  25,  1819: 

'You  may  omit  the  note  of  reference  to  Hobhouse's  travels  in 
Canto  second  [of  Don  Juan],  and  you  will  put  as  motto  to  the  whole: 
Difficile  est  proprie  communia  dicere. 

See  An  Poet.  128.  Horace' 

(48)  From  Byron's  diary,  January  21,  1821: 

'It  is  three  minutes  past  twelve. — "  'Tis  the  middle  of  the  night  by 
the  castle  dock,"  and  I  am  now  thirty-three! 
Eheu  fugaces,  Postume,  Postume, 
Labuntur  anni.' 

See  Carm.  2.  14.  1-2. 

(49)  From  a  letter  to  John  Murray,  July  11,  1821: 

'However  little  this  poem  [Hints  from  Horace]  may  resemble  the 
annexed  Lathi,  it  has  been  submitted  to  one  of  the  great  rules  of 
Horace,  having  been  kept  in  the  desk  for  more  than  nine  years.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  388. 

(50)  From  the  first  letter  to  John  Murray  'on  the  Rev.  W.  L. 
Bowies'  Strictures  on  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Pope:' 

'You  say  that  a  "fountain  is  as  clear  or  clearer  than  glass,"  to 
express  its  beauty: 

O  fons  Bandusiae,  splendidior  vitro.' 

See  Carm.  3.  13.  1. 

(51)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Moore,  March  8,  1822: 

'A  request  from  you  and  Hobhouse  would  have  come  upon  me  like 
two  out  of  the  tribus  Anticyris — with  which,  however,  Horace  despairs 
of  purging  a  poet.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  299-302: 

Nanciscetur  enim  pretium  nomenque  poetae, 
Si  tribus  Anticyris  caput  insanabile  numquam 
Tonsori  Licino  commiserit.     O  ego  laevus, 
Qui  purgor  bilem  sub  verni  temporis  horam! 

(52)  From  Don  Juan  3.  81 : 

But  he  had  genius — when  a  turncoat  has  it, 

The  Vales  irritabilis  takes  care 
That  without  notice  few  full  moons  shall  pass  it. 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  102:  genus  irritabile  vatum. 


82  The  Influence  of  Horace 

II.  Probable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  Cain  2.  1.71-72: 

Thou  canst  not 
All  die. 

SeeCoim  3.  30.  6: 

Non  omnis  monar. 

(2)  From  ChUde  Harold's  Pilgrimage  3.  73: 

On  delighted  wing 
Spurning  the  day-cold  bonds  which  round  our  being  cling. 

SeeCarm.  3.  2.  23-24: 

Udam 

Spernit  humum  fugiente  penna. 

(3)  From  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  4.  125 : 

Circumstance,  that  unspiritual  God 
And  Miscreator,  makes  and  helps  along 
Our  coming  evils  with  a  crutch-like  rod. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Coleridge  has  the  following  note  on  this  passage: 

'Circumstance  is  personified  as  halting  Nemesis — 
Pede  poena  claudo. 

(Carm.  3.  2.  32.)' 

(4)  From  The  Bride  of  Abydos  1.11: 

Think'st  thou  that  I  could  bear  to  part 
With  thee,  and  learn  to  halve  my  heart? 

Years  have  not  seen,  Time  shall  not  see, 
The  hour  that  tears  my  soul  from  thee: 
Even  Azrael,  from  his  deadly  quiver 

When  flies  that  shaft,  and  fly  it  must, 
That  parts  all  else,  shall  doom  for  ever 

Our  hearts  to  undivided  dust. 


SeeCarw.  2.  17.  5-12: 


A,  te  meae  si  partem  animae  rapit 
Maturior  vis,  quid  moror  altera, 
Nee  carus  aeque  nee  superstes 

Integer?    Ille  dies  utramque 
Ducet  ruinam.    Non  ego  perfidum 
Dixi  sacramentum:  ibimus,  ibimus, 
Utcumque  praecedes,  supremum 
Carpere  iter  comites  parati. 


Lord  Byron  83 

(5)  The  same  idea  is  found  in  Stanzas  to  Jessy,  stanza  1 : 

There  is  a  mystic  thread  of  life 

So  dearly  wreath'd  with  mine  alone, 

That  Destiny's  relentless  knife 

At  once  must  sever  both,  or  none. 

(6)  From  The  Curse  of  Minerva,  11.  289-290: 

The  hero  bounding  at  his  country's  call, 
The  glorious  death  that  consecrates  his  fall. 

See  Cam.  3.  2.  13: 

Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori. 

(7)  From  The  Bride  of  Abydos  2.  2 : 

That  field  with  blood  bedewed  in  vain, 
The  desert  of  old  Priam's  pride; 
The  tombs,  sole  relics  of  his  reign. 

See  Cam.  2.  1.  29-32: 

Quis  non  Latino  sanguine  pinguior 
Campus  sepulcris  impia  proelia 
Testatur  auditumque  Medis 
Hesperiae  sonitum  ruinae? 

(8)  From  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  2.  8: 

Sophists,  madly  vain  of  dubious  lore. 

SeeCarw.  1.  34.  2-3: 

Ltisanientis  dum  sapientiae 
Consultus  erro. 

(9)  From  The  Two  Foscari  4.  1.  129-130: 

To  lash  up  from  the  deep  the  Adrian  waves, 
And  waken  Auster,  sovereign  of  the  tempest. 

See  Cam.  3.  3.4-5: 

Auster, 
Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae. 

MsoCarm.  4.  14.  20-21: 

Indomitas  prope  qualis  undas 
Exercet  Auster. 

(10)  From  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  2.  39: 

Dark  Sappho!  could  not  Verse  immortal  save 
That  breast  imbued  with  such  immortal  fire? 
Could  she  not  live  who  life  eternal  gave? 


84  The  Influence  of  Horace 

See  Cam.  4.  9.  10-12:  Spirat  adhuc  amor 

Vivuntque  commissi  calores 
Aeoliae  fidibus  puellae. 

(11)  From  Don  Juan  15.  8: 

O  death!  thou  dunnest  of  all  duns!  thou  daily 
Knockest  at  doors,  at  first  with  modest  tap, 

Like  a  meek  tradesman  when  approaching  palely 
Some  splendid  debtor  he  would  take  by  sap: 

But  oft  denied,  as  Patience  'gins  to  fail,  he 
Advances  with  exasperated  rap. 

SeeCarm.  1.4.  13-14: 

Pallida  mors  aequo  pulsat  pede  pauperum  tabernas 
Regumque  turris. 

(12)  Sub- title  to  The  Age  of  Bronze: 

Carmen  Secular e  el  Annus  Hand  Mirabilis. 

The  first  part  of  this  is  probably  an  echo  of  Horace's  Carmen  Saecu- 
lare. 


PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY 

I.    A  Paraphrase  Attributed  to  Shelley 

In  the  discussion  of  the  influence  of  Horace  upon  Shelley,  first 
place  must  be  given  to  an  anonymous  paraphrase  of  Carm.  3.  19  which 
Mr.  H.  Buxton  Forman  concludes  to  be  a  genuine  Shelleyan  produc- 
tion, and  which  he  prints  in  the  appendix  to  his  library  edition  of 
Shelley's  poems.  I  quote  his  argument  in  favor  of  the  paraphrase:1 

'The  story  of  this  paraphrase,  not  hitherto  known  as  a  work  of 
Shelley's,  is  somewhat  complicated.  Among  the  Leigh  Hunt  MSS. 
placed  at  my  disposal  by  Mr.  S.  R.  Townshend  Mayer,  are  two  sheets 
of  extremely  thin  foreign  paper  such  as  numerous  poems  of  Shelley's 
were  written  upon  for  convenience  of  transit  through  the  post,  on 
which  sheets,  in  Mrs.  Shelley's  writing,  are  this  paraphrase  from 
Horace,  and  The  Magic  Horse,  from  Christofano  Bronzino.  The 
sheets  have  been  folded  in  three  as  they  would  be  if  enclosed  in  a 
letter.  Had  this  been  all  that  was  known  of  the  MS.,  I  should 
scarcely  have  hesitated,  looking  at  the  internal  evidence,  and  con- 
sidering that  the  paper  was  found  among  other  transcripts  of  Shelley's 
works  by  his  wife,  to  have  attributed  the  translations  positively  to 
him;  and  I  do  not,  in  fact,  doubt  that  they  are  his.  But  in  a  periodi- 
cal of  Leigh  Hunt's,  The  Companion,  for  the  26th  of  March,  1828  (the 
number,  as  originally  printed),  this  paraphrase  from  Horace  appears, 
without  any  translator's  name.  If  there  were  any  intrinsic  quality  in 
this  poem  to  countenance  for  a  moment  the  supposition  that  it  came 
from  Hunt's  pen — and  I  do  not  think  there  is, —  such  a  notion  would 
be  disposed  of  by  the  fact  that  when  he  printed  The  Companion  as  a 
book,  he  omitted  this  piece,  and  that  he  did  not  print  it  among  his 
translations,  admirable  as  it  is.  In  the  weekly  number  of  The  Com- 
panion following  that  which  contains  this  paraphrase,  he  apologizes, 
on  the  plea  of  illness,  for  using  something  of  Procter's,  sent  to  him 
"for  another  purpose";  and  the  presumption  is  that  he  used  a  trans- 
lation of  Shelley's  under  like  circumstances.  Following  the  search 
further,  Mr.  Mayer  and  I  discovered  Leigh  Hunt's  own  copy  of  this 
paraphrase — "copy"  that  has  evidently  been  used  to  print  from. 
The  ode  has  there  been  introduced  as  the  first  of  a  series  of  articles  to 
be  called  The  Dessert  and  to  consist  of  compositions  "not  large  enough 
to  stand  by  themselves";  and  this  introduction,  which  after  all  did  not 
appear  with  the  ode,  concludes  with  the  words,  "Here  have  we  been 
going  to  heaven,  when  our  sole  design  was  to  introduce  a  thing  no  less 
earthly  than  one  of  Horace's  odes.  But  if  ever  heaven  and  earth  meet 
(not  to  speak  it  profanely),  it  is  at  the  table  of  a  wit  and  good  fellows; 
and  so,  finding  ourselves  right  in  that  matter,  we  call  upon  Horace  for 
his  ode."  After  the  last  line  of  the  ode,  Hunt  has  written,  "The 

1  Shelley's  Poetical  Works,  ed.  Forman,  4.  540  (note). 


86  The  Influence  of  Horace 

following  is  a  portrait  from  the  life,  and  comes  well  after  our  dinner- 
party. The  subject  is  not  a  beau  ideal,  like  Telephus;  but  he  is  human 
and  Horatian,  and  might  illustrate  a  series  of  odes,  from  the  mox  reficil 
rates  of  the  beginning,  to  the  est  mihi  nonum  of  Book  the  fourth." 
Then  follows  the  heading,  "Sketches  from  the  Club-Book—No.  1. 
Old  Charlton,"  such  being  the  title  of  the  composition  of  Procter's 
used  with  the  apology  already  referred  to.  It  is  to  be  noted  further 
that,  whereas  in  Mrs.  Shelley's  transcript  we  read,  /  have  given  myself 
up  to  the  spirit  of  the  occasion,  in  the  argument  as  published  by  Hunt 
we  read,  The  translator  has  given  himself  up,  etc.  The  word  some- 
where, after  dinner  party,  is  omitted  in  Hunt's  copy,  where  we  also 
read,  after  enjoyment,  the  words  drinking  their  toasts  and  discussing 
their  mistresses.  He  inserts  further,  before  the  word  Commentators, 
the  following:  His  proposal  to  torment  the  old  fellow  next  door,  who 
envies  them  their  good  humor,  is  very  pleasant.  I  should  say  from  the 
writing  that  this  translation  belongs  to  about  the  year  1820.' 

Subsequently  Mr.  Forman  remarks:1 

'I  have  already  said  that  the  handwriting  of  Mrs.  Shelley  in  this 
MS.  seems  to  be  of  about  the  year  1820;  and  it  may  be  added  that  the 
playful  style  of  both  pieces  [viz.,  the  paraphrase  of  Horace  and  the 
translation  from  Bronzino]  corresponds  with  the  treatment  of  the 
Hymn  to  Mercury  and  The  Witch  of  Atlas — both  compositions  of 
1820.' 


The  ode  in  question  (3.  19)  runs  as  follows: 


Quantum  distet  ab  Tnacho 

Codrus  pro  patria  non  timidus  mori 
Narras  et  genus  Aeaci 

Et  pugnata  sacro  bella  sub  Ilio; 
Quo  Chium  pretio  cadum 

Mercemur,  quis  aquam  temperet  ignibus, 
Quo  praebente  domum  et  quota 

Paelignis  caream  frigoribus,  taces. 
Da  lunae  propere  novae, 

Da  noctis  mediae,  da,  puer,  auguris 
Murenae:  tribus  aut  novem 

Miscentur  cyathis  pocula  commodis. 
Qui  Musas  amat  imparis, 

Ternos  ter  cyathos  attonitus  petet 
Vates;  tris  prohibet  supra 

Rixarum  metuens  tangere  Gratia 
Nudis  iuncta  sororibus. 

Insanire  iuvat:  cur  Berecyntiae 
Cessant  flamina  tibiae? 

Cur  pendet  tacita  fistula  cum  lyra? 


Shelley's  Poetical  Works,  ed.  Forman,  4.  542  (note). 


Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  87 

Parcentis  ego  dexteras 

Odi:  sparge  rosas;  audiat  invidus 
Dementem  strepitum  Lycus 

Et  vicina  seni  non  habilis  Lyco. 
Spissa  te  nitidum  coma, 

Puro  te  similem,  Telephe,  Vespero 
Tempestiva  petit  Rhode; 

Me  lentus  Glycerae  torret  amor  meae. 

The  paraphrase: 

THE  DINNER  PARTY  ANTICIPATED 

Argument. — The  Poet  rallies  his  young  friend  Telephus  upon  his 
fondness  for  talking  of  genealogy  and  antiquities,  and  complains 
that  he  does  net  fix  a  day  for  having  a  dinner-party  somewhere. 
The  thought  of  such  a  meeting  fires  his  imagination,  and  he  sup- 
poses them  all  in  the  midst  of  their  enjoyment,  and  talking  of  their 
mistresses.  Commentators  differ,  as  usual,  upon  passages  in  this 
ode.  I  have  given  myself  up  to  the  spirit  of  the  occasion,  as  the 
most  likely,  if  not  the  most  learned,  guide. 

Dear  Telephus,  you  trace  divinely 

The  Grecian  king  who  died  so  finely; 

And  show  a  zeal  that  betters  us, 

For  all  the  house  of  Aeacus; 

And  make  us  to  our  special  joy, 

Feel  every  blow  bestowed  at  Troy: 

But  not  a  syllable  do  you  say, 

Of  where  we  are  to  dine  some  day; 

Not  one  about  a  little  stock 

Of  neat,  you  rogue;  nor  what  o'clock 

Some  four  of  us  may  come  together, 

And  shut  the  cold  out  this  strange  weather. 

Good  Gods!    I  feel  it  done  already! 

More  wine,  my  boy!    There — steady,  steady: 

'Whose  health?'  whose  health!  why  here's  the  moon: 

She's  young:  may  she  be  older  soon: 

'Whose  next?'    Why  next,  I  think,  it's  clear 

Comes  Mother  Midnight — Here's  to  her: 

And  after  her,  with  three  at  least, 

Our  reverend  friend  the  new-made  priest. 

Three  cups  in  one  then.     Three  and  wel 

Fill,  as  is  fitting,  three  times  three: 

For  poets  in  their  moods  divine 

Measure  their  goblets  by  the  Nine; 

Although  the  Graces,  naked  tremblers! 

Talk  of  a  third  to  common  tumblers. 


88  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Parties  like  us,  true  souls  and  glad, 
Have  right  and  title  to  be  mad. 
Who  told  the  flutes  there  to  leave  off? 
They've  not  been  breathed  yet  half  enough: 
And  who  hung  up  the  pipes  and  lyres? 
They  have  not  done  with  half  our  fires. 
The  roses  too — heap,  heap  one's  hair! 
I  hate  a  right  hand  that  can  spare. 
Let  the  old  envious  dog  next  door, 
Old  Lycus,  hear  the  maddening  roar, 
And  the  blithe  girl  (she'll  love  it  well) 
Whom  Lycus  finds — not  haveable. 
Ah!  Telephus!  those  locks  of  thine, 
That  lie  so  thick,  and  smooth,  and  shine, 
And  that  complete  and  sparkling  air, 
That  gilds  one's  evenings  like  a  star, 
'Tis  these  for  which  the  hussy  wishes, 
And  comes  to  meet  with  willing  blushes. 
'And  you  too,  Horace,  what  fair  she 
Inspires  you  now?'     Oh,  as  for  me, 
I'm  in  my  old  tormenting  way — 
Burnt  at  a  slow  fire,  day  by  day, 
For  my  dull  dear  Glycera.1 

II.    Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  Motto  of  Zastroz&i,  chapter  17: 

Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae. 

See  Carm.  3.  3.  7-8.  Horace- 

(2)  Note  on  Queen  Mab  8.  211-212: 

'Again,  so  general  was  this  opinion  [viz.,  that  mankind  was  free 
from  all  suffering  before  the  theft  of  fire  by  Prometheus]  that  Horace, 
a  poet  of  the  Augustan  age,  writes: 

Audax  omnia  perpeti, 
Gens  humana  ruit  per  vetitum  nefas; 

Audax  lapeti  genus 
Ignem  fraude  mala  gentibus  intulit: 

Post  ignem  aetheria  domo 
Subductum,  macies  et  nova  febrium 

Terris  incubuit  cohors, 
Semotique  prius  tarda  necessitas 
Lethi  corripuit  gradum.' 

See  Carm.  1.  3.  25-33.     (For  lekhi  in  1.  33  read  leti.) 

1  A'detailed  and  careful  comparison  between  the  ode  and  the  paraphrase  will  be  found  in  Percy 
Bysshe  Shelley's  Sprach-Studien:  seine  Uebersetzungen  aus  dem  Lafeinischen  und  Griechischen,  by  Florian 
Asanger,  pp.  57  ff. 


Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  89 

(3)  Note  on  Queen  Mob  5.  93-94: 

'The  nobleman  who  employs  the  peasants  of  his  neighborhood  in 
building  his  palaces  until  iam  pauca  aratro  iugera  regiae  moles  relin- 
quunt  flatters  himself  that  he  has  gained  the  title  of  a  patriot  by  yield- 
ing to  the  impulses  of  vanity.' 

See  Carm.  2.  15.  1-2.     (For  relinquunt  read  relinquent]  but  Shelley 
may  have  made  the  change  intentionally.) 

(4)  Advertisement  to  Oedipus  Tyrannus,  or  Swellfoot  the  Tyrant: 

'The  tenderness  with  which  he  [the  supposititious  author]  treats 
the  PIGS  proves  him  to  have  been  .  .  .  possibly  Epicuri  de 
grege  porous.' 

See  Epist.  1.  4.  16:  Epicuri  de  grege  porcum. 

(5)  From  A  Defense  of  Poetry : 

'These  things  are  not  the  less  poetry  quid  carent  vate  sacro.' 
See  Carm.  4.  9.  28:  carent  quia  vate  sacro. 

(6)  From  a  letter  to  William  Godwin,  July  29,  1812: 

'Did  Greek  and  Roman  literature  refine  the  soul  of  Johnson? 
Does  it  extend  the  views  of  the  thousand  narrow  bigots  educated  in 
the  very  bosom  of  classicality?  But 

in  publica  commoda  peccem, 
Si  longo  sermone  morer  tua  tempora, 
says  Horace  at  the  commencement  of  his  longest  letter.' 

See  Epist.  2.  1.  3-4. 

(7)  The  first  seven  words  of  the  foregoing  quotation  are  again  used 
at  the  end  of  a  letter  to  Thomas  Love  Peacock,  November,  1820. 

(8)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Love  Peacock,  January  26,  1819: 

'You  see  how  ill  I  follow  the  maxim  of  Horace,  at  least  in  its 
literal  sense:  nil  admirari — which  I  should  say,  prope  res  est  una — to 
prevent  there  ever  being  anything  admirable  in  the  world.' 

See  Epist.  1.6.1. 

(9)  Nil  admirari  is  again  quoted  in  a  letter  to  John  Gisborne, 
June  18,  1822. 

(10)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Jefferson  Hogg,  November  26, 1813 : 

'Do  not  persevere  in  writing  after  you  grow  weary  of  your  toil; 
aliquando  bonus  dormitat  Homer  us? 

See  Ars  Poet.  359.     (For  aliquando  read  quandoque.) 


90  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(11)  From  a  letter  to  'a  person  in  London,'  August  18,  1812: 

'Indeed,  a  poem  is  safe;  an  iron-souled  prosecutor  would  scarcely 
dare  to  attack  genus  irritabile  -Datum' 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  102. 

(12)  From  a  fragmentary  poem  beginning,  'Alas!  this  is  not  what 
I  thought  life  was,'  11.  7-8: 

With  triple  brass 
Of  calm  endurance  my  weak  breast  I  armed. 

See  Carm.  1.  3.  9-10: 

Aes  triplex 

Circa  pectus  erat. 

(13)  From  Queen  Mab  9.  57: 

Mild  was  the  slow  necessity  of  death. 

See  Carm.  1.  3.  32-33: 

Tarda  necessitas 

Leti. 

(Shelley,  it  will  be  recalled,  quotes  this  phrase  from  Horace  in  his 
notes  to  Queen  Mab.     See  above,  p.  84.) 

///.    Probable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  Peter  Bell  the  Third,  1.  538: 

Ex  luce  praebens  fumum. 
See  Ars  Poet.  143: 

Non  fumum  ex  fulgore,  sed  ex  fumo  dare  lucem. 

(2)  From  Queen  Mab  5.  171-176: 

.     .     .    Him  of  resolute  and  unchanging  will; 

Whom,  nor  the  plaudits  of  a  servile  crowd, 

Nor  the  vile  joys  of  tainting  luxury, 

Can  bribe  to  yield  his  elevated  soul 

To  Tyranny  or  Falsehood,  though  they  wield 

With  blood-red  hand  the  scepter  of  the  world. 

See  Carm.  3.  3.  1-6: 

lustum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 

Non  civium  ardor  prava  iubentium, 

Non  voltus  instantis  tyranni 

Mente  quatit  solida,  neque  Auster, 
Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae, 
Nee  fulminantis  magna  manus  lovis. 

For  'blood-red  hand'  see  Carm.  1.  2.  2-3:  rubente  dextera. 


Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  91 

(3)  From  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  11.  3165-3166: 

As  if  the  world's  wide  continent 
Had  fallen  in  universal  ruin  wracked. 

See  Carm.  3.  3.  7-8: 

Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae. 

(Shelley  quotes  this  at  the  beginning  of  Zastrozzi,  chapter  17;  see 
above,  p.  84.) 

(4)  From  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  11.  3529-3531 : 

Wisdom, 

and  tameless  scorn  of  ill, 

Thrice  steeped  m  molten  steel  the  unconquerable  will. 

This  seems  to  contain  traces  of  two  familiar  Horatian  themes — the 
aes  triplex  of  Carm.  1.  3.  9,  and  the  tenacem  propositi  virum,  etc.,  of 
Carm.  3.  3.  1  ff. 

(5)  From  The  Revolt  of  Islam,  11.  3746-3747 : 

And  fame,  in  human  hope  which  sculptured  was, 
Survive  the  perished  scrolls  of  unenduring  brass. 

See  Carm.  3.  30.  1: 

Exegi  monumentum  acre  perennius. 

(6)  From  Adonais,  11.  264-266: 

Whose  fame 

Over  his  living  head  like  Heaven  is  bent, 
An  early  but  enduring  monument. 

Compare  the  preceding  quotation  from  Horace.  The  idea  of  the 
eternity  of  fame  is,  of  course,  common  to  many  poets;  but  the  use  of 
the  phrase  'enduring  monument'  points  to  a  Horatian  origin. 

(7)  From  Prometheus  Unbound  2.  4.  49-52: 

On  the  race  of  man 

First  famine,  and  then  toil,  and  then  disease, 
Strife,  wounds,  and  ghastly  death  unseen  before, 
Fell. 

See  Carm.  1.  3.  29-33: 

Post  ignem  aetheria  domo 

Subductum  macies  et  nova  febrium 
Terris  incubuit  cohors, 

Semotique  prius  tarda  necessitas 
Leti  corripuit  gradum. 

(It  will  be  remembered  that  Shelley  was  familiar  with  this  ode;  see 
pp.  84,  86.) 


92  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(8)  From  Prometheus  Unbound  3.  1.  50-51: 

The  earthquake  of  his  chariot  thundering  up 
Olympus. 

SeeCarw.  1.  12.  58: 

Tu  gravi  curru  quaties  Olympum. 

(9)  From  Adonais,  1.  3: 

Thaw  not  the  frost  which  binds  so  dear  a  head. 
SeeCarm.  1.  24.  1-2: 

Quis  desiderio  sit  pudor  aut  modus 
Tarn  can  capitis? 

Horace's  ode  is  a  lament  for  Quintilius,  as  Shelley's  poem  is  an 
elegy  on  Keats. 

(10)  From  Adonais,  1.  188: 

Evening  must  usher  night,  night  urge  the  morrow. 
Compare  with  this  use  of  'urge'  Epod.  17.  25: 
Urget  diem  nox  et  dies  noctem. 

(11)  From  Charles  the  First  2.  2.  117-118: 

The  Spirit  of  the  Time, 
Which  spurs  to  rage  the  many-headed  beast  [the  populace]. 

SeeEpist.  1.1.76: 

Belua  multorum  es  [i.  e.,  popule  Romane]  capitum. 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that  this  bit  of  Horace  has  been 
so  often  used  as  to  be  a  commonplace. 

(12)  From  Ode  to  Liberty,  1.  258: 

Beckons  the  Sun  from  the  Eoan  wave. 
See  Epod.  2.  51:  £ois  fluctibus 

(13)  From  Oedipus  Tyrannus,  or  Swellfoot  the  Tyrant  2.  2.  22-27: 

Allow  me  now  to  recommend  this  dish — 
A  simple  kickshaw  by  your  Persian  cook, 
Such  as  is  served  at  the  great  King's  second  table. 
The  price  and  pains  which  its  ingredients  cost 
Might  have  maintained  some  dozen  families 
A  winter  or  two. 

The  'Persian  cook,'  one  of  the  evidences  of  luxury  and  extrava- 
gance, recalls  Carm.  1.  38.  1: 

Persicos  odi,  puer,  apparatus. 


JOHN  KEATS 

I.    Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

Nowhere  in  the  poems  of  Keats  can  there  be  found  a  direct  quo- 
tation or  even  a  definite  echo  from  Horace.  There  are,  however,  a 
few  reminiscences  in  his  letters,  which  I  append. 

(1)  From  a  letter  to  B.  R.  Haydon  (probably  of  December,  1818) : 

'I  will  be  with  you  to-morrow  morning  and  stop  all  day — we  will 
hate  the  profane  vulgar  and  make  us  wings.' 

See  Carm.  3.  1.  1:  ~,.       , 

Odi  profanum  volgus. 

(2)  From  a  letter  to  Thomas  Keats,  July  11,  1818: 
'As  to  the  profanum  vulgus,  I  must  incline  to  the  Scotch.' 

See  the  foregoing  citation  from  Horace. 

(3)  From  a  letter  to  Richard  Woodhouse,  October  27,  1818: 

'Your  letter  gave  me  great  satisfaction,  more  on  account  of  its 
friendliness  than  any  relish  of  that  matter  in  it  which  is  accounted 
so  acceptable  in  the  genus  irritabile.' 

SeeEpist.  2.  2.  102: 

Genus  irntabile  vatum. 

//.    Probable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  a  letter  to  George  and  Georgiana  Keats,  December, 

1818* 

'I  am  in  daily  expectation  of  letters — Nil  desperandum* 

The  quotation  may  be  found  in  Horace  (Carm.  1.  7.  27);  but  it 
is  so  very  familiar  a  catchword  that  one  cannot  feel  positive  of  its 
precise  derivation. 

(2)  From  The  Cap  and  Bells  61.  3-5: 

'Behold,  your  Majesty,  upon  the  brow 

Of  yonder  hill,  what  crowds  of  people!'     'Whew! 

The  monster's  always  after  something  new.' 

The  use  of  monster  to  describe  the  populace  recalls  Horace's  belua 
multorum  capitum  (Epist.  1.1.  76);  but  see  above,  reference  to  Shelley's 
probable  use  of  the  same  passage,  p.  88. 


ALFRED  LORD  TENNYSON 
/.    Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  As  we  have  seen,  Tennyson's  acquaintance  with  Horace  began 
early  in  his  life;  and  it  is  appropriate  that  we  should  find  in  his  first 
extant  letter,  written  to  his  aunt,  Marianne  Fytche,  when  he  was 
twelve  years  old,  the  following  sentence: 

'It  [the  word  diffused  in  Samson  Agonistes]  has  the  same  meaning 
as  "temere"  in  one  of  the  Odes  of  Horace,  Book  the  second: 

Sic  temere  et  rosa 

Canos  odorati  capillos, 

of  which  this  is  a  free  translation:  "Why  lie  we  not  at  random,  under 
the  shade  of  the  plantain  (sub  platano),  having  our  hoary  head  per- 
fumed with  rose  water?"  ' 

SeeCarw.  2.  11.  14-15. 

(2)  Motto  of  Parnassus: 

Exegi  monumentum 

Quod  non 

Possit  diruere    .    .     .    innumerabilis 
Annorum  series  et  fuga  temporum. 

Horace. 

See  Carm.  3.  30. 1-5.  Tennyson's  poem  shows  no  trace  of  the  Horatian 
ode,  however,  unless  it  be  the  phrase  'flight  of  the  Ages'  (fuga  tempor- 
um). 

(3)  From  Becket  5.  2: 

And  one  [wife]  an  uxor  pauperis  Ibyci. 
See  Carm.  3.  15.  1. 

(4)  From  an  undated  letter  to  James  Spedding: 

'The  birds  must  sing  and  the  furze  bloom  for  you  and  Fitzgerald 
alone,  par  nobile  fratrum.' 

See  Serm.  2.  3.  243. 

(5)  From  a  letter-diary  written  from  Glastonbury,  August,  1854: 

'I  took  shelter  over  Arimathaean  Joseph's  bones  in  the  crypt  of 
his  chapel,  for  they  say  (credat  ludaeus)  he  lies  there.' 

See  Serm.  1.  5.  100. 


Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  95 

(6)  From  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women  [Cleopatra] : 

I  died  a  Queen. 
Tennyson's  note  on  the  line: 

'Cf.  Non  humilis  mulier.     (Carm.  1.  37.  32.)' 

(7)  From  Epilogue: 

For  dare  we  dally  with  the  sphere 

As  he  did  half  in  jest, 
Old  Horace?     'I  will  strike'  said  he 

'The  stars  with  head  sublime.' 

See  Carm.  1.  1.  36: 

Sublimi  feriam  sidera  vertice. 

(8)  From  Poets  and  their  Bibliographies : 

And  you,  old  popular  Horace,  you  the  wise 
Adviser  of  the  nine-years-ponder' d  lay. 

See  ArsPoet.  386-388:  SiquM  tamen  oUm 

Scripseris 

nonum    .    .    prematur  in  annum. 

(9)  From  Becket  1.  1: 

The  included  Danae  has  escaped  again 
Her  tower,  and  her  Acrisius. 

See  Carm.  3.  16.  1,3,5-7: 

Inclusam  Danaen  turris  aenea 
munierant  satis, 


Si  non  Acrisium  virginis  abditae 
Custodem  pavidum  luppiter  et  Venus 
Risissent. 


(10)     From  Lucretius: 


No  larger  feast  than  under  plane  or  pine 
With  neighbors  laid  along  the  grass,  to  take 
Only  such  cups  as  left  us  friendly-warm. 

See  Carm.  2.  11.13,14,17: 

Cur  non  sub  alta  vel  platano  vel  hac 

Pinu  iacentes 

Potamus? 

Tennyson's  whole  poem  is,  naturally  enough,  saturated  with  Lucre- 
tius, who  also  has  'neighbors  laid  along  the  grass'  (2.  29) ;  but  Hinder 
plane  or  pine'  is  clearly  Horatian.  The  reminiscence  carries  us  back 
to  the  boyish  exegesis  of  the  same  passage,  noticed  above  (No.  1). 


96  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(11)  From  The  Two  Voices: 

Soil'd  with  noble  dust. 
See  Carm.  2.  1.  22: 

Non  indecoro  pulvere  sordidos. 

(12)  The  same  phrase  is  found  in  The  Vale  of  Bones: 

Your  brows  with  noble  dust  defil'd, 

with  a  reference  to  the  Horatian  ode  in  a  footnote. 

(13)  Motto  of  the  same  poem: 

Albis  informem    .     .     .    ossibus  agrum. 
See  Serm.  1.  8.  16.  Horace> 

(14)  Motto  of  the  poem  beginning,  'Did  not  thy  roseate  lips 

OUtV1C  :  Ulla  si  iuris  tibi  peierati 

Poena,  Barine,  nocuisset  umquam, 
Dente  si  nigro  fieres  vel  uno 

Turpior  ungui, 
Crederem. 

See  Carm.  2.  8.  1-5. 

(15)  From  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women: 

Saw  God  divide  the  night  with  flying  flame. 

See  Carm.  1.  34.  5-6: 

Diespiter 
Igni  corusco  nubila  dividens. 

Hallam  Tennyson  notes  this  parallel  (Eversley  edition). 

(16)  From  In  Memoriam  127: 

The  brute  earth  lightens  to  the  sky. 
See  Carm.  1.  34.  9: 

Bruta  tellus. 

Noted  by  Hallam  Tennyson. 

(17)  To  a  translation  made  by  Hallam  Tennyson  of  Carm.  1.  38 


Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  97 

his  father  contributed  these  lines : 

Dream  not  of  where  some  sunny  rose  may  linger 

Later  in  autumn. 
See  11.  3-4: 

Mitte  sectari,  rosa  quo  locorum 

Sera  moretur. 

//.   Probable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  FiomWill: 

O  well  for  him  whose  will  is  strong! 

He  suffers,  but  he  will  not  suffer  long; 

He  suffers,  but  he  cannot  suffer  wrong: 

For  him  nor  moves  the  loud  world's  random  mock, 

Nor  all  Calamity's  hugest  waves  confound, 

Who  seems  a  promontory  of  rock, 

That,  compass'd  round  with  turbulent  sound, 

In  middle  ocean  meets  the  surging  shock, 

Tempest-buffeted,  citadel-crown'd. 

See  Cam.  3.  3.  1-8: 

lustum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 

Non  civium  ardor  prava  iubentium, 

Non  voltus  instantis  tyranni 

Mente  quatit  solida,  neque  Auster, 
Dux  inquieti  turbidus  Hadriae, 
Nee  fulminantis  magna  manus  lovis; 
Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis, 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae. 

(2)  From  Tiresias: 

No  sound  is  breathed  so  potent  to  coerce, 

And  to  conciliate,  as  their  names  who  dare 

For  that  sweet  mother  land  which  gave  them  birth 

Nobly  to  do,  nobly  to  die. 

SeeCarw.  3.  2.  13: 

Dulce  et  decorum  est  pro  patria  mori; 
Carm.  3.  19.  2: 

Pro  patria  non  timidus  mori; 

Carm.  4.  9.  51-52: 

Non  ille  pro  cans  amicis 
Aut  patria  timidus  perire. 


98  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(3)  From  In  Memoriam  89: 

The  dust  and  din  and  steam  of  town. 
SeeCarw.  3.  29.  12: 

Fumum  et  opes  strepitumque  Romae. 

(4)  There  is  a  similar  phrase  in  To  the  Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice: 

Far  from  noise  and  smoke  of  town. 

(5)  From  Edwin  Morris: 

Finish'd  to  the  finger  nail. 

SeeSerm.  1.5.32-33: 

Ad  unguem 
Factus  homo. 

(6)  From  Ode  on  the  Death  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington : 

Whole  in  himself. 
SeeSerm.  2.  7.86: 

In  se  ipso  totus. 

(7)  From  The  Lover's  Tale  1: 

Death  drew  nigh  and  beat  the  doors  of  Life. 
SeeCarm.  1.  4.  13: 

Pallida  mors  aequo  pulsat  pede  pauperum  tabernas. 

(8)  From  The  Princess  1 : 

We  remember  love  ourselves 
In  our  sweet  youth. 

See  Carm.  1.  16.  22-24: 

Me  quoque  pectoris 
Temptavit  in  dulci  iuventa 
Fervor. 

(9)  From  Morte  D1  Arthur: 

The  giddy  pleasure  of  the  eyes. 
SeeEpist.  2.  1.  188: 

Incertos  oculos  et  gaudia  vana. 

(10)  From  In  Memoriam  84: 

Thy  spirit  should  fail  from  off  the  globe, 
What  time  mine  own  might  also  flee, 
As  link'd  with  thine  in  love  and  fate, 
And,  hovering  o'er  the  dolorous  strait 
To  the  other  shore,  involved  in  thee, 


Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  99 

Arrive  at  last  the  blessed  goal, 

And  He  that  died  in  Holy  Land 

Would  reach  us  out  the  shining  hand, 
And  take  us  as  a  single  soul. 

SeeCarw.  2.  17.  5ff.: 

A,  te  meae  si  partem  animae  rapit 
Maturior  vis,  quid  moror  altera, 
Nee  cams  aeque  nee  superstes 

Integer?    Ille  dies  utramque 
Ducet  ruinam.     Non  ego  perfidum 
Dixi  sacramentum:  ibimus,  ibimus, 
Utcumque  praecedes,  supremum 
Carpere  iter  comites  parati. 

(11)  From  The  Lotos-Eaters: 

To  live  and  lie  reclined 
On  the  hills  like  Gods  together,  careless  of  mankind. 

Hallam  Tennyson  refers  to  Serm.  1.  5.  101: 

Namque  deos  didici  securum  agere  aevum. 
Also  to  Lucretius  5.  83,  6.  58: 

Nam  bene  qui  didicere  deos  securum  agere  aevum. 

Horace's  line  is  clearly  an  echo  of  Lucretius.    It  is  impossible  to 
say  which  Tennyson  had  in  mind. 

(12)  From  In  Memoriam  1: 

To  dance  with  death,  to  beat  the  ground. 
SeeCarw.  1.37.  1-2: 

Nunc  est  bibendum,  nunc  pede  libero 
Pulsanda  tellus; 
and  Cam.  1.  4.  7: 

Alterno  terrain  quatiunt  pede. 

(13)  From  In  Memoriam  1 15 : 

Now  fades  the  last  long  streak  of  snow, 
Now  burgeons  every  maze  of  quick 
About  the  flowering  squares,  and  thick 

By  ashen  roots  the  violets  blow. 

See  Cam.  4.  7.  1-2: 

Diff  ugere  nives,  redeunt  iam  gramina  campis 
Arboribusque  comae. 


100  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(14)     From  In  Memoriam  107: 

Fiercely  flies 

The  blast  of  North  and  East,  and  ice 
Makes  daggers  at  the  sharpen'd  eaves. 


But  fetch  the  wine, 
Arrange  the  board  and  brim  the  glass; 

Bring  in  great  logs  and  let  them  lie, 
To  make  a  solid  core  of  heat. 

SeeCarw.  1.  9.  1-8: 

Vides  ut  alta  stet  nive  candidum 

Soracte,  nee  iam  sustineant  onus 

Silvae  laborantes,  geluque 

Flumina  constiterint  acuto. 
Dissolve  frigus  ligna  super  foco 
Large  reponens  atque  benignius 
Deprome  quadrimum  Sabina, 
O  Thaliarche,  merum  diota. 

(15)  From  In  Memoriam  89 : 

And  break  the  livelong  summer  day 
With  banquet  in  the  distant  woods. 

SeeCarw.  2.  7.6-7: 

Cum  quo  morantem  saepe  diem  mero 
Fregi. 

(16)  From  Supposed  Confessions  of  a  Second-Rate  Sensitive  Mind: 

To  arm  in  proof,  and  guard  about 
With  triple-mailed  trust. 

This  is  clearly  an  echo  of  Horace's  aes  triplex  (Carm.  1.  3.  9);  but 
the  idea  has  become  so  familiar  that  one  cannot  say  whether  the  par- 
ticular instance  is  a  direct  reminiscence,  or  comes  through  an  inter- 
mediary. 

(17)  From  Morte  DJ  Arthur: 

Till  on  to  dawn,  when  dreams 
Begin  to  feel  the  truth  and  stir  of  day. 

SeeSerm.  1.  10.33: 

Post  mediam  noctem,     .     .     .     cum  somnia  vera. 

(18)  From  To ,  after  Reading  a  Life  and  Letters: 

Keep  nothing  sacred:  'tis  but  just 
The  many-headed  beast  should  know. 


Alfred  Lord  Tennyson  101 

SeeEpist.  1.  1.  76: 

Belua  multorum  es  capitum. 

S*  The  similarity  is  unmistakable;  but,  as  before  (p.  88),  the  phrase  is 
almost  a  commonplace. 

(19)  From  The  Princess  1: 

Whate'er  my  grief  to  find  her  less  than  fame. 

SeeEpist.  1.  11.  3: 

Maiora  minorave  fama. 

(20)  From  Locksley  Hall: 

Great  Orion  sloping  slowly  to  the  West 
See  Cam.  3.  27.  18: 

Pronus  Orion. 
(The  first  meaning  of  pronus  is  'inclined  forward'.) 

(21)  From  The  Marriage  of  Geraint: 

On  either  shining  shoulder  laid  a  hand 

See  Carm.  2.  5.  18: 

Albo  sic  umero  nitens. 

(22)  From  Beautiful  City: 

The  tides  of  a  civic  insanity. 

See  Carm.  3.  24.  26: 

Rabiem    ....    civicam. 

(23)  From  The  Two  Voices: 

The  joy  that  mixes  man  with  Heaven 
See  Carm.  1.  1.  29-30: 

Me  doctarum  hederae  praemia  frontium 
Dis  miscent  superis. 

(24)  From  The  Cup  1.1: 

No  rushing  on  the  game — the  net — the  net 
Hallam  Tennyson  gives  a  reference  to  Carm.  1.  1.  28: 
Seu  rupit  teretes  Marsus  aper  plagas 

(25)  From  In  Memoriam  115: 

The  happy  birds  that  change  their  sky 
See  Epist.  1.  11.  27:  caelum,  non  animum  mutant. 


ROBERT  BROWNING 

/.    Unquestionable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  The  Inn  Album  7 : 

But  ne  trucidet  cor  am  populo 

Invents  seneml    Right  the  Horatian  rule! 

See  Ars  Poet.  185: 

Ne  pueros  coram  populo  Medea  trucidet. 

Here,  as  frequently,  Browning  alters  the  Horatian  line  to  fit  the 
situation. 

(2)  From  Pacchiarotto,  stanza  16: 

The  paraphrase — which  I  much  need — is 
From  Horace — per  ignes  incedis. 

See  Carm.  2.  1.  7:  incedis  per  ignis. 

(3)  The  title  of  the  poem  Instans  Tyrannus  comes  from  Carm. 
3.  3.  3:  instantis  tyranni. 

(4)  From  The  Statue  and  the  Bust: 

How  strive  you?    De  te  fabulal 
See  Serm.  1.  1.  69-70. 

(5)  From  Parleyings  with  Certain  People  of  Importance  (Parley- 
ings  with  George  Bubb  Dodington,  stanza  6) : 

In  armor,  true  aes  triplex,  breast  and  back 
Binding  about. 

See  Carm.  1.  3.  9-10:  Aes  triplex 

Circa  pectus  erat. 

(6)  In  the  same  section  of  the  same  poem  we  read: 

Triply  cased  in  brass — 
a  reference,  of  course,  to  the  same  Horatian  phrase. 

(7)  From  The  Two  Poets  of  Croisic,  stanza  75: 

Irritabilis  gens. 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  102: 

Genus  irritabile  vatum. 

(8)  From  The  Two  Poets  of  Croisic,  stanza  75: 

Leisurely  works  mark  the  divinior  mens. 


Robert  Browning  103 

See  Serm.  1.  4.  43: 

Mens  divinior. 

(9)  The  same  phrase  is  found  in  the  same  poem,  1.  38: 

All  his  day's  divinior  mens. 

(10)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  8: 

Nesit 

Marita  quae  rotundioribus 
Onusta  mammis    .     .     .    baccis  ambulet: 
Her  bosom  shall  display  the  big  round  balls, 
No  braver  proudly  borne  by  wedded  wife! 
With  which  Horatian  promise  I  conclude. 

See  Epod.  8.  13-14: 

Nee  sit  marita,  quae  rotundioribus 
Onusta  bacis  ambulet. 

(11)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

When  here  comes  tripping  Flaccus  with  his  phrase, 
'Trust  me,  no  miscreant  singled  from  the  mob, 
Crede  non  ilium  tibi  de  scelesta 
Plebe  delectum.' 

See  Cam.  2.4.  17-18: 

Crede  non  illam  tibi  de  scelesta 
Plebe  dilectam. 

(12)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Law  that  hath  listened  while  the  lyrist  sang 
Lene  tormentum  ingenio  admoves, 
Gently  thou  joggest  by  a  twinge  the  wit, 
Plerumque  duro,  else  were  slow  to  blab! 

See  Carm.  3.  21.  13-14. 

(13)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  8: 

Where's  a  stone? 

Unde  mt  lapidem,  where  darts  for  me? 
Unde  sagittas? 

See  Serm.  2.  7.  116.     (For  mi  read  mihi.) 

(14)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  8: 

Satis  superque,  both  enough  and  to  spare. 
See  Epod.  1.  31. 

(15)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  5 : 

Nor  look  that  I  shall  give  it,  for  a  grace, 
Stans  pede  in  uno. 

See  Serm.  1.  4.  10. 


104  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(16)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Insanit  homo,  threat  succeeds  to  threat 
See  Serm.  2.  7.  117. 

(17)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

And  thus  I  end,  tenax  proposito. 
See  Carm.  3.  3.  1 :  tenacem  propositi. 

(18)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Solvuntur  tabulae?    May  we  laugh  and  go? 
See  Serm.  2.  1.  86: 

Solventur  risu  tabulae,  tu  missus  abibis. 

(19)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Quid  vetat,  what  forbids,  I  aptly  ask, 
With  Horace. 

See  Serm.  1.  1.  25  and  1.  10.  56. 

(20)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  4: 

Notum  tonsoribus\    To  the  Tonsor  then! 
See  Serm.  1.7.3: 

Et  lippis  notum  et  tonsoribus. 

(21)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  2: 

Barbers  and  blear-eyed,  as  the  ancient  sings. 
See  the  preceding  reference. 

(22)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  8: 

These  are  reality,  and  all  else. — fluff, 

Nutshell,  and  naught, — thank  Flaccus  for  the  phrase! 

The  reference  must  be  to  Serm.  2.  5.  35-36: 

Eripiet  quivis  oculos  citius  mihi,  quam  te 
Contemptum  cassa  nuce  pauperet. 

(23)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  8: 

% 

By  mutilation  of  each  paramour — 

As  Galba  in  the  Horatian  satire  grieved. 

See  Serm.  1.  2.  45-46  for  the  reference. 

(24)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Whereupon, 
As  Flaccus  prompts,  I  dare  the  epic  plunge. 


Robert  Browning  105 

See  Ar,  Poet.  148-149:  InmediasreS 

Non  secus  ac  notas  auditorem  rapit. 
(25)     From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Say,  she  kissed  him,  say,  he  kissed  her  again! 
Such  osculation  was  a  potent  means, 
A  very  efficacious  help,  no  dou^>t: 
Such  with  a  third  part  of  her  nectar  did 
Venus  imbue:  why  should  Pompilia  fling 
The  poet's  declaration  in  his  teeth? 

.  1.  13.  15-16: 


Oscula,  quae  Venus 
Quinta  parte  sui  nectaris  imbuit. 

(The  'third'  may  be  a  slip.) 

(26)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

O  splendidly  mendacious! 

See  Cam.  3.  11.  35: 

Splendide  mendax. 

(27)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  2: 

Drop  by  drop 

Came  slow  distilment  from  the  alembic  here 
Set  on  to  simmer  by  Canidian  hate. 

The  witch  Canidia  is  often  mentioned  by  Horace,  always  with  the 
utmost  contempt  and  detestation.  See  Epod.  3,  5,  17;  Serm.  1.  8, 
2.  1,  2.  8. 

(28)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  3  : 

Oh  mouse-birth  of  that  mountain-like  revenge! 

See  Ars  Poet.  139: 

Parturient  montes,  nascetur  ridiculus  mus. 

Browning  has  several  other  references  to  this  same  line;  for  ex- 
ample: 

(29)  from  Master  Hugues  of  Saxe-Gotha: 

j  Proved  a  mere  mountain  in  labor; 

(30)  from  Red  Cotton  Night-Cap  Country  1  : 

Ay,  the  mother-mouse 
(Reversing  fable,  as  truth  can  and  will) 
Which  gave  our  mountain  of  a  London  birth! 


106  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(31)     From  Fifine  at  the  Fair,  stanza  82: 

Try  if,  trusting  to  sea-tracklessness,  I  class 
With  those  around  whose  breast  grew  oak  and  triple  brass: 
Who  dreaded  no  degree  of  death,  but,  with  dry  eyes, 
Surveyed  the  turgid  main  and  its  monstrosities — 
And  rendered  futile  so,  the  prudent  Power's  decree 
Of  separate  earth  and  disassociating  sea; 
Since,  how  is  it  observed,  if  impious  vessels  leap 
Across,  and  tempt  a  thing  they  should  not  touch — the  deep? 
(See  Horace  to  the  boat,  wherein,  for  Athens  bound, 
When  Virgil  must  embark — Jove  keep  him  safe  and  sound! — 
The  poet  bade  his  friend  start  on  the  watery  road, 
Much  reassured  by  this  so  comfortable  ode.) 

This  passage,  from  line  2  to  line  8,  is  a  fairly  close  translation  of 
Carm.  1.3.9ff.: 

Illi  robur  et  aes  triplex 

Circa  pectus  erat.     .    .    . 


Quern  mortis  timuit  gradum, 

Qui  siccis  oculis  monstra  natantia, 
Qui  vidit  mare  turbidum?    .    .    . 

Nequiquam  deus  abscidit 

Prudens  Oceano  dissociabili 
Terras,  si  tamen  impiae 

Non  tangenda  rates  transiliunt  vada. 

Browning's  'turgid  main'  is  due  to  his  knowledge  of  the  reading 
mare  turgidum,  preferred  by  some  editors. 

(32)     From  The  Two  Poets  of  Croisic,  stanza  154: 

Did  earlier  Agamemnons  lack  their  bard? 
But  later  bards  lacked  Agamemnon,  too! 


SeeCarw.  4.  9.  25-28: 


Vixere  fortes  ante  Agamemnona 

Multi;  sed  omnes  inlacrimabiles 

Urgentur  ignotique  longa 

Nocte,  carent  quia  vate  sacro. 


Robert  Browning  107 

(33)  From  Imperante  Augusta  Natus  Est: 

'Nobody  like  him  [Varius],'  little  Flaccus  laughed, 
'At  leading  forth  an  Epos  with  due  pomp! 
Only,  when  godlike  Caesar  swells  the  theme, 
How  should  mere  mortals  hope  to  praise  aright? 
Tell  me,  thou  offshoot  of  Etruscan  kings!' 
Whereat  Maecenas  smiling  sighed  assent. 

SeeSerm.  1.  10.43-44: 

Forte  epos  acer, 
Ut  nemo,  Varius  ducit; 

andCarw.  3.  29.  1-3: 

Tyrrhena  regum  progenies,     .    .    . 
.    .    .    Maecenas. 

(34)  From  White  Witchcraft: 

Now  say  your  worst,  Canidia! 
See  above,  No.  27,  for  Horace's  references  to  Canidia. 

(35)  From  an  undated  letter  to  Mr.  Fox: 

'A  free  and  easy  sort  of  thing  which  he  wrote  some  months  ago 
"on  one  leg.'" 

See  Serm.  1.  4.  9-10: 

In  hora  saepe  ducentos, 
Ut  magnum,  versus  dictabat  stans  pede  in  uno. 

(36)  From  a  letter  to  Dr.  Furnivall,  1882: 

'The  ridiculus  mus  is  the  inveterate  nibbler  at,  and  spoiler  of,  a 
man's  whole  life's  labor.' 

See  Ars  Poet.  139. 

(37)  From  a  letter  to  Elizabeth  Barrett,  March  3,  1846: 

'Milnes  said  I  was  the  only  literary  man  he  ever  knew,  tenax  pro- 
positi,  able  to  make  out  a  life  for  himself  and  abide  in  it.1 

See  Carm.  3.3.  1 :  tenacem  propositi. 

(38)  From  a  letter  to  Mr.  Fox,  April  16,  1835: 

'A  fit  compeer  of  the  potter  in  Horace  who  anticipated  an  amphora 
and  produced  a  porridge-pot.' 


108  The  Influence  of  Horace 

See  ArsPoet.  21-22: 

Amphora  coepit 
Institui;  currente  rota  cur  urceus  exit? 

(39)  From  an  autograph  album,  inscribed  under 

Omnibus  hoc  vitium  est  cantoribus,  inter  amicos 
Ut  numquam  inducant  animum  cantare  rogati, 
Iniussi  numquam  desistant. 

[Serm.  1.3.  1-3]: 

All  singers,  trust  me,  have  this  common  vice, 
To  sing  'mid  friends  you'll  have  to  ask  them  twire. 
If  you  don't  ask  them  'tis  another  thing, 
Until  the  judgment  day  be  sure  they'll  sing. 

(40)  From  Imperante  Augusto  Natus  Est: 

Well  may  the  poet-people  each  with  each 
Vie  in  his  [Caesar's]  praise,  our  company  of  swans, 
Virgil  and  Horace,  singers — in  their  way — 
Nearly  as  good  as  Varius,  though  less  famed: 
Well  may  they  cry,  'No  mortal,  plainly  God!' 

Horace  celebrates  Augustus  many  times.    The  idea  of  the  em- 
peror's divinity  may  be  found  in  Carm.  1.  2.  41-45: 

Sive  mutata  iuvenem  figura 
Ales  in  terris  imitaris  almae. 
Filius  Maiae,  patiens  vocari 

Caesaris  ultor, 
Serus  in  caelum  redeas; 

in  Carm.  3.  3.  11-12: 

Quos  inter  Augustus  recumbens 
Purpureo  bibet  ore  nectar; 

and  in  Carm.  3.  5.  2-3: 

Praesens  divus  habebitur 
Augustus. 

Browning  was  not  judging  the  poets  in  his  own  person,  but  under 
the  assumed  guise  of  their  Roman  contemporary. 

For  the  sake  of  completeness  I  append  one  or  two  colorless  refer- 
ences: 

(41)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  1 : 

Vulgarized  Horace  for  the  use  of  schools. 


Robert  Browning  109 

(42)     From  Parleyings  with  Certain  People  of  ^Importance  (Parley- 
ings  with  Christopher  Smart,  stanza  8)  : 

Smart's  who  translated  Horace. 
//.    Probable  traces  of  Horace 

(1)  From  Parffee:  ^^ 

As  straight  encircle  men  withfpraise^andjove, 
So  I  should  not  die  utterly. 

See  Carm.  3.  30.  6  (referring  to  the[immortality  of  verse): 

Non  omnis  moriar. 

(2)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Tis  Guido  henceforth  guides  Pompilia's  step, 

Cries,  'No  more  friskings  o'er  the  fruitful  glebe.'  ^ 


We  seek  not  there  should  lapse  the  natural  law, 

The  proper  piety  to  lord  and  king 

And  husband:  let  the  heifer  bear  the  yoke! 

See  Carm.  2.  5.  Iff.: 

Nondum  subacta  ferre  iugum  valet 
Cervice  ......... 

Circa  virentis  est  animus  tuae 
Campos  iuvencae. 

(3)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  12: 

Who  knows, 
On  what  pretence  of  busy  idleness? 

SeeEpist.  1.  11.  28: 

Strenua  nos  exercet  inertia. 

(4)  From  The  Ring  and  the  Book  9: 

Her  own  chastity,  a  triple  mail. 
See  Carm.  1.  3.  9:   aes  triplex. 

(5)  From  Sordello  2: 

His  Highness  knew  what  poets  were:  in  brief, 
Had  not  the  tetchy  race  prescriptive  right 
To  peevishness,  caprice? 

See  Epist.  2.  2.  102:  genus  irritabile  vatum. 


1 10  The  Influence  of  Horace 

(6)  From  The  First-Born  of  Egypt: 

Israel's  God,  whose  red  hand  had  avenged 
His  servants'  cause  so  fearfully. 

See  Carm.  1.  2.  2-3:  pater    .     .     .    rubente  dexter  a. 

(7)  From  a  letter  to  Elizabeth  Barrett,  March  30,  1846  (referring 
to  A  Soul's  Tragedy) : 

Filing  is  quite  another  process  from  hammering,  and  a  more 
difficult  one.    Note  that  'filing'  is  the  wrong  word. 

See  ArsPoet.  290-291: 

Si  non  offenderet  unum 

Quemque  poetarum  limae  labor  et  mora. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  CONSULTED 

Allingham,  H.,  and  Radford,  D.  (editors).  William  Allingham:  a  Diary.  London, 
1907. 

Allsop,  Thomas.  Letters,  Conversations,  and  Recollections  of  Samuel  Taylor  Cole- 
ridge. London,  1864. 

Anders,  Heinrich  R.  D.    Shakespeare's  Books.    Berlin,  1904. 

Asanger,  Florian.  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley's  Sprach-Studien:  seine  Uebersetzungen 
aus  dem  Lateinischen  und  Griechischen.  Bonn,  1911. 

Babbitt,  Irving.    Masters  of  Modern  French  Criticism.    Boston,  1912. 

Bettany,  W.  A.  Lewis  (compiler).     Confessions  of  Lord  Byron.    London,  1905. 

Browning,  Robert.    Letters  (ed.  Wise).    London,  1895. 

Browning,  Robert.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  Scudder).     Boston,  1895. 

Browning,  Robert  [and  E.  B.].    New  Poems  (ed.  Kenyon).    London,  1914. 

Byron,  Lord.    Don  Juan  (ed.  E.  H.  Coleridge).    London,  1906. 

Byron,  Lord.    Letters  and  Journals  (ed.  Prothero).    London,  1898-1901. 

Byron,  Lord.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  E.  H.  Coleridge).    London,  1898-1904. 

Byron,  Lord.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  E.  H.  Coleridge).    New  York,  1910. 

Caine,  Hall.    Life  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.    London,  1887. 

Calverley,  Charles  Stuart.    Works.    London,  1901. 

Campbell,  James  Dykes.    Life  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.    London,  1894. 

Chesterton,  Gilbert  Keith.    Robert  Browning.    New  York,  1903. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.    Anima  Poetae  (ed.  E.  H.  Coleridge).    Boston,  1895. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.    Biographia  Epistolaris  (ed.  Turnbull).     London,  1911. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.    Biographia  Liter  aria  (ed.  Shawcross).    Oxford,  1907. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Complete  Poetical  Works  (ed.  E.  H.  Coleridge).  Oxford, 
1912. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.    Complete  Works  (ed.  Shedd).    New  York,  1853. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.  Essays  on  his  own  Times  (ed.  Sara  Coleridge).  London, 
1850. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor.    Letters  (ed.  E.  H.  Coleridge).    Boston,  1895. 

Collins,  John  Churton.    Illustrations  of  Tennyson.    London,  1902. 

Colvin,  Sidney.    Keats.    London,  1887. 

Cooper,  Lane.  A  Concordance  to  the  Poems  of  William  Wordsworth.  London,  1911. 

Cunliffe,  John  William.  The  Influence  of  Seneca  on  Elizabethan  Tragedy.  Lon- 
don, 1893. 

Dana,  C.  L.  and  J.  C.  (compilers).  Horace  for  Modern  Readers.  Woodstock  (Ver- 
mont), 1908. 

De  Quincey,  Thomas.    Works  (ed.  Masson).    Edinburgh,  1889-1890. 

Dowden,  Edward.    Life  of  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley.    London,  1886. 

Droop,  E.  J.  A.    Die  Belesenheit  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley's.    Weimar,  1906. 

Duff,  John  Wight.    Literary  History  of  Rome.    New  York,  1909. 

Ellis,  Frederick  Startridge.  Lexical  Concordance  to  the  Poetical  Works  of  Percy 
Bysshe  Shelley.  London,  1892. 

Fuess,  Claude  M.    Lord  Byron  as  a  Satirist  in  Verse.    New  York,  1912. 

Fuhrmann,  Ludwig.    Die  Belesenheit  des  jungen  Byron.    Berlin,  1903. 

Gordon,  George  Stuart  (compiler).  English  Literature  and  the  Classics.  Oxford, 
1912. 


112  The  Influence  of  Horace 

Griffin,  W.  Hall,  and  Minchin,  H.  C.    Life  of  Robert  Browning.    London,  1910. 

Hodell,  Charles  Wesley.     The  Old  Yellow  Book.    Washington,  1908. 

Hogg,  Thomas  Jefferson.    Life  of  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley.    London,  1858. 

Horace.    Odes  and  Epodes  (ed.  Shorey-Laing) .     Boston,  1911. 

Horace.    Satires  and  Epistles  (ed.  Kirkland).    Boston,  1902. 

Horace.    Works  (Scriptores  Latini) .    London,  1825. 

Horace.    Works  (ed.  Wickham).    Oxford,  1903-1904.* 

Houghton,  Lord.     Life  and  Letters  of  John  Keats.    London,  1867. 

Jeaffreson,  John  Cordy.     The  Real  Shelley.    London,  1885. 

Keats,  John.    Letters  (ed.  Forman).    London,  1895. 

Keats,  John.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  Forman).    Oxford,  1910. 

Keats,  John.    Works  (ed.  Forman).    London,  1883. 

Keble,  John.    Lectures  on  Poetry  (tr.  Francis).    Oxford,  1912. 

Lang,  Andrew.    Alfred  Tennyson.    Edinburgh,  1901. 

Lang,  Andrew.     Letters  to  Dead  Authors.    New  York,  1899. 

Letters  of  Robert  Browning  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Barrett.    New  York,  1899. 

Letteers  of  the  Wordsworth  Family  (ed.  Knight).    Boston,  1907. 

Linemann,  Kurt.     Die  Belesenheit  von  William  Wordsworth.    Berlin,  1908. 

Lonsdale,  J.,  and  Lee,  S.     Translation  of  Horace.    London,  1900. 

Lucas,  Edward  Verrall.     Charles  Lamb  and  the  Lloyds.    London,  1898. 

Manitius,  M.    AnalektenzurGeschichtedesHorazimMittelalter.    Gottingen,  1893. 

Mayne,  Ethel  Colburn.    Byron.    London,  1912. 

Medwin,  Thomas.    Conversations  of  Lord  Byron.    London,  1824. 

Men6ndez  y  Pelayo,  Marcelius.    H  or  ado  en  Espana.    Madrid,  1885. 

Moore,  Edward.    Studies  in  Dante  (first  series).     Oxford,  1896. 

Moore,  Thomas.     Life  of  Byron.    London,  1832. 

Mustard,  Wilfred  Pirt.    Classical  Echoes  in  Tennyson.    New  York,  1904. 

Orr,  Mrs.  Sutherland.     Life  and  Letters  of  Robert  Browning.    Boston,  1891. 

Reinsch,  Hugo.  Ben  Jonsons  Poetik  und  seine  Beziehungen  zu  Horaz.  Erlangen, 
1899. 

Sellar,  William  Young.    Horace  and  the  Elegiac  Poets.    Oxford,  1892. 

Sharp,  William.     Life  of  Robert  Browning.    London,  1890. 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe.    Letters  to  Elizabeth  Hitchener.    New  York,  1908. 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  Forman).    London,  1882. 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  Hutchinson).    Oxford,  1912. 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe.     Prose  Works  (ed.  Forman).    London,  1880. 

Skeat,  Walter  William.  Introduction  to  Vol.  2  of  Works  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer, 
Oxford,  1894. 

Smart,  Christopher.  Translation  of  Horace  (revised  by  Buckley).  New  York, 
1859. 

Smith,  Nowell  (compiler).    Wordsworth's  Literary  Criticism.    London,  1905. 

Starick,  Paul.  Die  Belesenheit  von  John  Keats  und  die  Grundzu'ge  seiner  literarischen 
Kritik.  Berlin,  1910. 

Stemplinger,  E.  Das  Fortleben  der  horazischen  Lyrik  seit  der  Renaissance.  Leip- 
zig, 1906. 

Tennyson,  Alfred.    Poems  (ed.  Warren).    Oxford,  1910. 

Tennyson,  Alfred.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  Rolfe).    Boston,  1898. 

*Used  in  this  thesis  as  a  standard  text. 


List  of  Books  Consulted  113 

Tennyson,  Alfred.    Suppressed  Poems  (ed.  Thomson).     New  York,  1903. 

Tennyson,  Alfred.     Works  (ed.  H.  Tennyson).    New  York,  1908. 

Tennyson,  Alfred.     Works  (ed.  H.  Tennyson).    New  York,  1913. 

Tennyson,  Hallam.    Alfred  Lord  Tennyson:  a  Memoir.    New  York,  1897. 

Tucker,  Thomas  George.     The  Foreign  Debt  of  English  Literature.    London,  1907. 

Tyrrell,  Robert  Yelverton.    Latin  Poetry.    Boston,  1895. 

Wordsworth,  Christopher.    Memoirs  of  William  Wordsworth  (ed.  Reed).    Boston, 

1851. 

Wordsworth,  William.    Poems  (ed.  Knight).    London,  1896. 
Wordsworth,  William.    Poems  (ed.  Smith).    London,  1908. 
Wordsworth,  William.    Poetical  Works  (ed.  Hutchinson) .    Oxford,  1910. 
Wordsworth,  William.    Prose  Works  (ed.  Knight).    London,  1896. 


INDEX  OF  PASSAGES  FROM  HORACE 


Cam.  1.1. 28,  Tennyson,  97 
Cam.  1.1. 29-30,  Tennyson,  97 
Carm.  1.1. 35-36,  Wordsworth,  59 
Cam.  1.1. 36,  Tennyson,  91 
Carm.1.2.2-3,  Byron,  70,  75;  Shelley,  86; 

Browning,  106 

Cam.  1.2.41-45,  Browning,  104 
Cam.  1.3.1,  Byron,  76 
Carm.  1.3. 9,   Shelley,   87;  Tennyson,   96; 

Browning,  105 

Carm.1.3.9-10,  Shelley,  86;  Browning,  98 
Carm.  1.3.9  seq.,  Browning,  102 
Cam.  1.3.25-33,  Shelley,  84 
Cam.1.3.29-33,  Shelley,  87 
Cam.1.3.32-33,  SheUey,  86 
Carm.  1.4.7,  Coleridge,  64;  Tennyson,  95 
Carm.1.4.13,  Coleridge,  64;  Tennyson,  94 
Canw.1.4.13-14,  Byron,  80 
Carm.1.7.13,  Wordsworth,  56 
Carm.1.7.27,  Keats,  89 
Carm.1.9.1-2,  Byron,  70 
Cam.  1.9. 1-8,  Tennyson,  96 
Carm.  1.1 1.8,  Byron,  73 
Carm.1.12.1-2,  Wordsworth,  50 
Carm.1.12.58,  Shelley,  88 
Carm.1.13.15-16,  Browning,  101 
Carm.1.15,  Byron,  75 
Carm.  1.16.7-8,  Wordsworth,  58 
Carm.1.16.22-24,  Tennyson,  94 
Carm.  1.17.1  seq.,  Wordsworth,  54 
Carm.1.20.1,  Wordsworth,  56 
Carm.1.22,  Coleridge,  64 
Carm.1.24.1-2,  Shelley,  88 
Carm.  1.34.2-3,  Byron,  79 
Carm.  1.34.5-6,  Tennyson,  92 
Carm.  1.34.9,  Tennyson,  92 
Carm.  1.35,  Wordsworth,  57 
Carm.1.37.1-2,  Coleridge,  64;  Tennyson, 

95 

Carm.1.37.32,  Tennyson,  91 
Cam.  1.38,  Wordsworth,  59 
Cam.  1.38.1,  SheUey,  88 
Cam.  1.38.3-4,  Tennyson,  93 
Carm.2.1.7.  Browning,  98 
Carm.2. 1.7-8,  Coleridge,  62 


Carm.2.1.22,  Tennyson,  92 
Carm.2. 1.29-32,  Byron,  79 
Carm.2.2.6,  Coleridge,  62 
Carw.2.3.21  seq.,  Byron,  76 
Carm.2  AA7 -18,  Browning,  99 
Carm.2.5i,  Coleridge,  64 
Carm.2.5A  seq.,  Browning,  105 
Carm.2.5.18,  Tennyson,  97 
Carw.2.6.10  seq.,  Wordsworth,  54 
Carm.2.6. 13-14,  Wordsworth,  60 
Carm.2.7.6-7,  Tennyson,  96 
Carm.2.8.1-5,  Tennyson,  92 
Carm.2. 11. 13  seq.,  Tennyson,  91 
Carm.2. 11. 14-15,  Tennyson,  90 
Carm.2. 13.24  seq.,  Wordsworth,  56 
Carm.2. 13.27,  Coleridge,  63 
Carw.2.14.1-2,  Byron,  77 
Carm.2.15.1-2,  SheUey,  85 
Cam.2.16.19-20,  Byron,  74 
Carm.2. 16.37,  Wordsworth,  54;  Byron,  75 
Carm.2.17.5-12,  Byron,  78 
Carm.2  AT. S  seq.,  Tennyson,  95 
Carm.2.18.14,  Wordsworth,  54;  Byron,  75 
Carm.2.18.18-19,  Byron,  73 
Carm.3.1.1,  Keats,  89 
Carm.3.1.4,  Byron,  71 
Carm.3.1.47,  Wordsworth,  54;  Byron,  75 
Carm.3.2.13,  Wordsworth,  58;  Byron,  79; 

Tennyson,  93 
Carm.3.2.23-24,  Byron,  78 
Carm.3.2.26-27,  Byron,  71 
Carm.3.2.32,  Byron,  78 
Carm.3.3.1,  Browning,  100,  103 
Carm.3.3.1-6,  Shelley,  86 
Carm.3.3.1-8,  Byron,  69;  Tennyson,  93 
Carm.3.3.1  seq.,  Shelley,  87 
Cafw.3.3.3,  Browning,  98 
Carm.3.3.4-5,  Wordsworth,  58;  Byron,  79 
Carm.3.3.5,  Byron,  71 
Carm.3.3.7,  Byron,  76 
Carm.3.3.7-8,  Shelley,  84,  87 
Carm.3.3.1 1-12,  Browning,  104 
Carm.3.3.69,  Wordsworth,  54 
Carm.3.4.5-6,  Wordsworth,  51 
Carm.3.4.65  seq.,  Wordsworth,  60 


116 


The  Influence  of  Horace 


Carm.3.5.2-3,  Browning,  104 

Carw.3.11.35,  Browning,  101 

Carw.3.13,  Wordsworth,  52,  53,  54 

Carw.3.13.1,  Byron,  77 

Carm.3. 13.9-10,  Wordsworth,  59 

Cam.3.13.14-16,  Wordsworth,  58 

Carm.3. 14.27-28,  Byron,  71 

Carw.3.15.1,  Tennyson,  90 

Carw.3.16.1  seq.,  Tennyson,  91 

Carw.3.19,  SheUey,  82 

Cam.3.19.2,  Tennyson,  93 

Carw.3.21. 13-14,  Browning,  99 

Carm.3. 24.26,  Tennyson,  97 

Carw.3.26.2-4,  Coleridge,  61 

Carm.3. 27. 18,  Tennyson,  97 

Carw.3.29.1-3,  Browning,  103 

Canw.3.29.12,  Wordsworth,  54;  Tenny- 
son, 94 

Cam.3.30.1,  Shelley,  87 

Carw.3.30.1-5,  Tennyson,  90 

Carw.3.30.6,  Byron,  78;  Browning,  105 

Carm .4.1. 29-32,  Byron,  71 

Carw.4.2.27-28,  Wordsworth,  51 

Cam.4.7.1,  Wordsworth,  60 

Carw.4.7.1-2,  Tennyson,  95 

Carw.4.8.11  seq.,  Wordsworth,  49 

CarmA.S.2S,  Wordsworth,  49 

Cam.4.9.5-8,  Wordsworth,  55 

Carw.4.9.10-12,  Wordsworth,  55;  Byron, 
80 

Carw.4.9.25,  Byron,  74 

Carw.4.9.25-28,  Browning,  102 

Carw.4.9.28,  Shelley,  85 

Carw.4.9.51-52,  Tennyson,  93 

Carw.4.14.20-21,  Byron,  79 

Carm.  Saec.,  Byron,  80 

Epod.1.20,  Coleridge,  62 

Epod.1.31,  Browning,  99 

Epod.2.l,  Byron,  72 

Epod.2.51,  SheUey,  88 

Epod.3,  Browning,  101 

Epod.SA,  Byron,  72 

Epod.5,  Browning,  101 

£/>oJ.8.13-14,  Browning,  99 

EpodA5.n,  Coleridge,  64 

Epod.  16.47-48,  Wordsworth,  58 

Epod.17,  Browning,  101 

EpodA7.25,  Shelley,  88 


£^.17.30-36,  Coleridge,  61 

Sw«.1.1.25,  Browning,  100 

Serm.  1.1. 69-70,  Browning,  98 

Serm.  1.2.45-46,  Browning,  100 

Serm. 1. 3. 1-3,  Browning,  104 

Serm.1.3.107-108,  Byron,  73 

Serm.  1.4.9- 10,  Browning,  103 

SermAA.W,  Byron,  76;  Browning,  99 

Serm.lAA2,  Coleridge,  62 

Serm.  1.4.43,  Browning,  99 

•Serw.1.4.81-85,  Coleridge,  61 

Serm. 1 .4.  81  seq.,  Coleridge,  63 

Serm.  1.5.32-33,  Tennyson,  94 

Serm.  1.5.44.  Byron,  70 

Serm.l.SAQQ,  Tennyson,  90 

Serw.1.5.101,  Tennyson,  95 

Serm.  1.6.5,  Byron,  74 

Serw.1.7.3,  Browning,  100 

Smw.l.S,  Browning,  101 

SermA.S.16,  Tennyson,  92 

Serm.  1.9.78,  Byron,  71 

Serm.  1.10.33,  Tennyson,  96 

Serm.  1.10.43-44,  Browning,  103 

Serm.  1.10.56,  Browning,  100 

Serm.2.1,  Browning,  101 

Serm.2.lM,  Browning,  100 

Serm.2.2.79,  Byron.  74 

Serm.2.3.243,  Wordsworth,  52;  Tennyson, 

90 

5mw.2.5.35-36,  Browning,  100 
Serm.2.6.29  seq.,  Wordsworth,  54 
Serm.2.6.71  seq.,  Coleridge,  62 
Serm.2.7M,  Byron,  73;  Tennyson,  94 
Serm.2.7 .l\6,  Browning,  99 
Smw.2.7.117,  Browning,  100 
Serm.2.7.n8,  Wordsworth,  54;  Byron  75 
Serm.2.S,  Browning,  101 
Epist.  1.1.1,  Wordsworth,  51 
EpistAA.S-9,  Wordsworth,  52 
Epist.1.1.51,  Coleridge,  63 
Epist.l.1.76,    Byron,    74;    Shelley,    88; 

Keats,  89;  Tennyson,  97 
E^.l.1.88,  Coleridge,  63 
Epist.L2.56,  Byron,  74 
Epist.  1.4.16,  Shelley,  85 
Epist.1.6.1,  SheUey,  85 
Epist. \. 6.1-2,  Byron,  72 
Epist.  1.10.6  seq.,  Wordsworth,  53 


Index  of  Passages  from  Horace 


117 


Epist.  1.10.22-24.  Wordsworth,  52 

EpistAA1.3,  Tennyson,  97 

Epist  A  Al. 9,  Byron,  76 

EpistAA1.27,  Tennyson,  97 

£#w/.  1.1 1.28,  Wordsworth,  50,56;  Brown- 
ing, 105 

Epist  A. 14:,  Wordsworth,  54 

Epist  A  A4  A,  Byron,  75 

Epist.  1.14.43,  Byron,  73 

Epist. 1.16,  Wordsworth,  54 

Epist.  1.16.1  seq.,  Byron,  75 

Epist  A  AS  A,  Byron,  73 

Epist.lAS.lQ3,  Wordsworth,  54 

EpistAA9A9,  Wordsworth,  50 

Epist. 2. 1.3 A,  Shelley,  85 

Epist.2A.7Q-71,  Coleridge,  63 

Epist.2.1.11S  seq.,  Coleridge,  61 

Epist.2A.lSS,  Tennyson,  94 

Epist.2A.213,  Wordsworth,  50    . 

Epist. 2. 2. 45,  Wordsworth,  51,  56 

Epist.2.2.55,  Wordsworth,  50 

Epist.2.2AQ2,  Coleridge,  63;  Byron,  77; 
Shelley,  86;  Keats,  89;  Browning,  98, 
105 

Epist.2.2A75-176,  Wordsworth,  59 

Ars  Poet.3-4,  Byron,  76 

Ars  Poet.21-22,  Browning,  104 


Ars  Poet.  31,  Wordsworth,  51 

Ars  Poet. 31-37,  Byron,  67 

Ars  Poet.52-57,  Byron,  65 

Ars  Poet.  99-100,  Byron,  65 

Ars  P^.lll-113,  Byron,  67 

Ars  PoetA27,  Byron,  73 

Ars  Poet .128,  Byron,  77 

Ars  Poet.139,   Coleridge,  62;  Browning. 

101,  103 

Ars  Poet.  140-145,  Byron,  66 
Ars  Poet.143,  Shelley,  86 
Ars  Poet.US,  Byron,  72 
Ars  Poet.  148-149,  Browning,  101 
Ars  Poet.  161-165,  Byron,  66 
Ars  Poet.175-178,  Byron,  67 
Ars  Poet.185,  Browning,  98 
Ars  Poet .193-201,  Byron,  68 
Ars  Poet.290-291,  Browning,  106 
Ars  Poet.299-302,  Byron,  77 
Ars  Po^.304-305,  Byron,  65 
Ars  Poet. 312  seq.,  Wordsworth,  50 
Ars  Poet.343,  Byron,  71 
Ars  Poet. 359,  Byron,  75;  Shelley,  85 
Ars  Poet.372-373,  Byron,  73 
Ars  Poet.386-388,  Tennyson,  91 
Ars  Poet.3&&,  Byron,  76,  77 
Ars  PoetA13,  Wordsworth,  51 


THAYER,  M.R.  PA 

The  Influence  of  Horace.      6411